History as experience
In his thought provoking “Sublime Historical Experience” (2005) Frank Ankersmit redirects our attention to the origin of historical investigation. Underneath the coninuting discussion of how history is to be done and how it is and should be related to other disciplines, lingers the question what history is. What makes us aware of the past at all? Whence orginates historical consciousness? In what follows Ankersmit paints a picture of how we become fascinated by the past by means of the notion of “sublime historical experience. The book is a completely impractical and immensely erdutie account that links Rorty to Davidson to Huizinga to Holderlin. Everyone should read it.
