The Americas played an important role in these efforts. However, Amerindian monuments and artefacts were placed outside of history, as evidence of the beginnings of time. The discussions about the place of the Americas in world history thereby illustrate the epistemological work needed to transform old things into things of the past, which can mediate between past and present.
Speaker:
Kasper Risbjerg Eskildsen
He is an Associate Professor of History of Science at Roskilde University in Denmark. Among his recent publications is Modern Historiography in the Making: The German Sense of the Past, 1700-1900 (Bloomsbury, 2022).