History Is As History Does: Social Responsibility And The Historical Profession

The relationship between states and corporations is a complex one. It has evolved over the last two century and in a recent work, the American political scientist Ian Bremmer argues that the two entities are in a state of war and this tension could even be the end of the free market. However, despite this rivalry between economics and politics, both the companies and the state claim to be responsible towards the society. For companies, ‘social responsibility’ or the ‘corporate conscience’ are the concepts generally used while in the case of state, its responsibility towards the society could not be synthesized in a term; it is multi-fold, ranging from paternalist actions and measures to discursive strategies meant to create among citizens a common sense of national unity and cohesion. In this paper I shall analyze these discursive strategies and more precisely those in which the historian has an important role, concentrating on the professional and ethical implications. The elaboration and dissemination of this message could be considered a form of social responsibility of the state. From the reconstruction of the past “as it really was” the historian has nowadays in the digital era to find the optimal relationship between memory and forgetting.