Preliminary note: The regularly updated database of full-text publications by Antoon De Baets is located at https://www.concernedhistorians.org/about
Antoon De Baets is professor emeritus of History, Ethics and Human Rights at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands. He is the author of many publications, particularly on the censorship of history, the ethics of historians, and the history of human rights, including books such as Responsible History (New York / Oxford: Berghahn Books, 2009) and Crimes against History (London: Routledge, 2019). Since 1995, he has coordinated the Network of Concerned Historians. He is the President of the International Commission for the History and Theory of Historiography (2022–2026). A full curriculum vitae is at https://www.concernedhistorians.org/va/cv.pdf. His ORCID is 0000-0002-5734-8193.
This article explores a question of practical ethics: To which values do historians appeal when t... more This article explores a question of practical ethics: To which values do historians appeal when they come under sustained attack from political power? An important instrument of historians living in closed societies to express their values is the open letter, defined as an unauthorized public statement cast in epistolary form and addressed to either political leaders or fellow historians, but always with the general public as a silent reader in the background. Limited to the post-1945 period, a search for such open letters yielded 106 examples from 39 countries in closed and open societies. Four types of open letters were identified: those describing repression effects, those rebutting official historical views, those defending basic principles, and those presenting transitional historiography. Nine telling cases from six closed societies were then reviewed in detail and analyzed from a variety of angles (authorship, rhetoric, audience, impact, criticism, regime stage, and regime type). When these cases were examined in light of the initial question, it was found that most letters contained a great diversity of values but focused on how the human rights of historians were threatened. Invariably, their theme was historical writing in its full breadth, including its documentary infrastructure and its ramifications in education and the public sphere. Respect for historical truth was invoked more than any other value. It was a minimalist truth conception, however, understood as the absence of historical lies and falsification. The reason for this emphasis on an integrity-oriented conception of historical truth may lie in an old and deep-seated professional fear: the fear that the dictator’s corrupted and divisive version of history survives and triumphs as the final verdict.
I decades I had unwavering confidence in the importance of the historical sciences. That is, unti... more I decades I had unwavering confidence in the importance of the historical sciences. That is, until 2017, when prompted by the writings of Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Daniel Kahneman, and others, I decided to devote a class to biases in historical writing. In preparation, I delved into my notes on anachronism kept since my student days. Anachronism is a distorting form of retrospection characterized by the impermissible transfer of contemporary objects, concepts, or values to the past. When objects are transferred, anachronism is obvious, but when concepts and values of the present are projected onto the past, things become a little bit more complicated.
Since time immemorial, dictators have censored the writing of history and persecuted its practiti... more Since time immemorial, dictators have censored the writing of history and persecuted its practitioners. This policy of history censorship has had many effects, some of which were unintended, such as the development of strategies to counter the distortion of history. This essay therefore opens with a summary overview of the intended and unintended effects of the censorship of the science of history. Against this backdrop, the essay then focuses on one unintended effect of this censorship: resistance to the distortion of history. A tableau is given of the repertoires of available types of resistance under dictatorships and, for comparative purposes, in democracies. The essay uses these repertoires to analyze the resistance of the historians under dictatorships from four perspectives: actors (historians and others); conduct (acts and omissions), motives (ethical, moral, professional, and political), and impact (short-term and long-term). The essay is intended as a tribute, both to historians who once resisted tyrannical power and to historians who retell their stories as an inspiration for present and future battles.
In this interview, conducted at the XXIII International Congress of Historical Sciences in Poznan... more In this interview, conducted at the XXIII International Congress of Historical Sciences in Poznan, Antoon De Baets (emeritus professor of History, Ethics and Human Rights at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands) addresses key issues for historians and other producers of history. His remarks about the scientific status of historiography and the range of different threats to history seem particularly important. He talks not only about the most direct crimes against historians and history, but also about issues like hindsight bias and fake news. The professional duties of historians and the issue of ethical codes for historians are also discussed.
The question of how we know when censorship occurred has several sides. Problems of evidence of c... more The question of how we know when censorship occurred has several sides. Problems of evidence of censorship do not only arise from practical obstacles, but also from its very nature as a knowledge-related phenomenon. Scarcity and abundance of information about censorship may be determined by the extent of the censors' success or by uneven research efforts. These factors often make it complicated to demarcate censorship from similar restrictions and to identify patterns and trends in the relationship between power and freedom. The present chapter looks into this epistemological problem by mapping the set of concepts governing and surrounding censorship in the particular field of history. It draws up a mini-dictionary with definitions of 26 key concepts related to, larger than, and different from the censorship of history. As these definitions are interrelated, the set in its entirety forms a taxonomy.
Racisme, continent obscur : clichés, stéréotypes, phantasmes à propos des Noirs dans le Royaume de Belgique, 1991
De Baets, Antoon (1991). Métamorphoses d'une épopée: Le Congo dans les manuels d'histoire employé... more De Baets, Antoon (1991). Métamorphoses d'une épopée: Le Congo dans les manuels d'histoire employés dans nos écoles. In J.-P. Jacquemin (editor), Racisme, continent obscur : clichés, stéréotypes, phantasmes à propos des Noirs dans le Royaume de Belgique (blz. 45-57).
Since time immemorial, dictators have censored the writing of history and persecuted its practiti... more Since time immemorial, dictators have censored the writing of history and persecuted its practitioners. This policy of history censorship has had many effects, some of which were unintended, such as the development of strategies to counter the distortion of history. This essay therefore opens with a summary overview of the intended and unintended effects of the censorship of the science of history. Against this backdrop, the essay then focuses on one unintended effect of this censorship: resistance to the distortion of history. A tableau is given of the repertoires of available types of resistance under dictatorships and, for comparative purposes, in democracies. The essay uses these repertoires to analyze the resistance of the historians under dictatorships from four perspectives: actors (historians and others); conduct (acts and omissions), motives (ethical, moral, professional, and political), and impact (short-term and long-term). The essay is intended as a tribute, both to historians who once resisted tyrannical power and to historians who retell their stories as an inspiration for present and future battles.
Presses universitaires de Rennes eBooks, Jun 7, 2018
This essay tackles the question of whether European states censored views on their past as coloni... more This essay tackles the question of whether European states censored views on their past as colonizers. Analyzing a wealth of cases, I argue that, after decolonization, most former colonizers began to perceive their colonial crimes as a source of shame. Often, the result was silence and censorship. I conclude that even consolidated democracies find it hard to deal responsibly with their violent past by means of an ongoing public debate, which is an essential feature of any sound democracy.
... Het werk dat mijn vrouw Elly, rechtstreeks of onrechtstreeks, voor dit boek verrichtte en opo... more ... Het werk dat mijn vrouw Elly, rechtstreeks of onrechtstreeks, voor dit boek verrichtte en opofferde, is niet in eenvoudige dankbetuigingen te vatten. Met grote droefheid denk ik terug aan Paul de Maeseneer, BRTN-journalist en vriend van de Derde Wereld, die mij op cruciale ...
This article explores a question of practical ethics: To which values do historians appeal when t... more This article explores a question of practical ethics: To which values do historians appeal when they come under sustained attack from political power? An important instrument of historians living in closed societies to express their values is the open letter, defined as an unauthorized public statement cast in epistolary form and addressed to either political leaders or fellow historians, but always with the general public as a silent reader in the background. Limited to the post-1945 period, a search for such open letters yielded 106 examples from 39 countries in closed and open societies. Four types of open letters were identified: those describing repression effects, those rebutting official historical views, those defending basic principles, and those presenting transitional historiography. Nine telling cases from six closed societies were then reviewed in detail and analyzed from a variety of angles (authorship, rhetoric, audience, impact, criticism, regime stage, and regime type). When these cases were examined in light of the initial question, it was found that most letters contained a great diversity of values but focused on how the human rights of historians were threatened. Invariably, their theme was historical writing in its full breadth, including its documentary infrastructure and its ramifications in education and the public sphere. Respect for historical truth was invoked more than any other value. It was a minimalist truth conception, however, understood as the absence of historical lies and falsification. The reason for this emphasis on an integrity-oriented conception of historical truth may lie in an old and deep-seated professional fear: the fear that the dictator’s corrupted and divisive version of history survives and triumphs as the final verdict.
I decades I had unwavering confidence in the importance of the historical sciences. That is, unti... more I decades I had unwavering confidence in the importance of the historical sciences. That is, until 2017, when prompted by the writings of Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Daniel Kahneman, and others, I decided to devote a class to biases in historical writing. In preparation, I delved into my notes on anachronism kept since my student days. Anachronism is a distorting form of retrospection characterized by the impermissible transfer of contemporary objects, concepts, or values to the past. When objects are transferred, anachronism is obvious, but when concepts and values of the present are projected onto the past, things become a little bit more complicated.
Since time immemorial, dictators have censored the writing of history and persecuted its practiti... more Since time immemorial, dictators have censored the writing of history and persecuted its practitioners. This policy of history censorship has had many effects, some of which were unintended, such as the development of strategies to counter the distortion of history. This essay therefore opens with a summary overview of the intended and unintended effects of the censorship of the science of history. Against this backdrop, the essay then focuses on one unintended effect of this censorship: resistance to the distortion of history. A tableau is given of the repertoires of available types of resistance under dictatorships and, for comparative purposes, in democracies. The essay uses these repertoires to analyze the resistance of the historians under dictatorships from four perspectives: actors (historians and others); conduct (acts and omissions), motives (ethical, moral, professional, and political), and impact (short-term and long-term). The essay is intended as a tribute, both to historians who once resisted tyrannical power and to historians who retell their stories as an inspiration for present and future battles.
In this interview, conducted at the XXIII International Congress of Historical Sciences in Poznan... more In this interview, conducted at the XXIII International Congress of Historical Sciences in Poznan, Antoon De Baets (emeritus professor of History, Ethics and Human Rights at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands) addresses key issues for historians and other producers of history. His remarks about the scientific status of historiography and the range of different threats to history seem particularly important. He talks not only about the most direct crimes against historians and history, but also about issues like hindsight bias and fake news. The professional duties of historians and the issue of ethical codes for historians are also discussed.
The question of how we know when censorship occurred has several sides. Problems of evidence of c... more The question of how we know when censorship occurred has several sides. Problems of evidence of censorship do not only arise from practical obstacles, but also from its very nature as a knowledge-related phenomenon. Scarcity and abundance of information about censorship may be determined by the extent of the censors' success or by uneven research efforts. These factors often make it complicated to demarcate censorship from similar restrictions and to identify patterns and trends in the relationship between power and freedom. The present chapter looks into this epistemological problem by mapping the set of concepts governing and surrounding censorship in the particular field of history. It draws up a mini-dictionary with definitions of 26 key concepts related to, larger than, and different from the censorship of history. As these definitions are interrelated, the set in its entirety forms a taxonomy.
Racisme, continent obscur : clichés, stéréotypes, phantasmes à propos des Noirs dans le Royaume de Belgique, 1991
De Baets, Antoon (1991). Métamorphoses d'une épopée: Le Congo dans les manuels d'histoire employé... more De Baets, Antoon (1991). Métamorphoses d'une épopée: Le Congo dans les manuels d'histoire employés dans nos écoles. In J.-P. Jacquemin (editor), Racisme, continent obscur : clichés, stéréotypes, phantasmes à propos des Noirs dans le Royaume de Belgique (blz. 45-57).
Since time immemorial, dictators have censored the writing of history and persecuted its practiti... more Since time immemorial, dictators have censored the writing of history and persecuted its practitioners. This policy of history censorship has had many effects, some of which were unintended, such as the development of strategies to counter the distortion of history. This essay therefore opens with a summary overview of the intended and unintended effects of the censorship of the science of history. Against this backdrop, the essay then focuses on one unintended effect of this censorship: resistance to the distortion of history. A tableau is given of the repertoires of available types of resistance under dictatorships and, for comparative purposes, in democracies. The essay uses these repertoires to analyze the resistance of the historians under dictatorships from four perspectives: actors (historians and others); conduct (acts and omissions), motives (ethical, moral, professional, and political), and impact (short-term and long-term). The essay is intended as a tribute, both to historians who once resisted tyrannical power and to historians who retell their stories as an inspiration for present and future battles.
Presses universitaires de Rennes eBooks, Jun 7, 2018
This essay tackles the question of whether European states censored views on their past as coloni... more This essay tackles the question of whether European states censored views on their past as colonizers. Analyzing a wealth of cases, I argue that, after decolonization, most former colonizers began to perceive their colonial crimes as a source of shame. Often, the result was silence and censorship. I conclude that even consolidated democracies find it hard to deal responsibly with their violent past by means of an ongoing public debate, which is an essential feature of any sound democracy.
... Het werk dat mijn vrouw Elly, rechtstreeks of onrechtstreeks, voor dit boek verrichtte en opo... more ... Het werk dat mijn vrouw Elly, rechtstreeks of onrechtstreeks, voor dit boek verrichtte en opofferde, is niet in eenvoudige dankbetuigingen te vatten. Met grote droefheid denk ik terug aan Paul de Maeseneer, BRTN-journalist en vriend van de Derde Wereld, die mij op cruciale ...
Este libro reúne siete de mis escritos sobre las relaciones entre historia, derechos humanos y de... more Este libro reúne siete de mis escritos sobre las relaciones entre historia, derechos humanos y democracia. Explora las libertades de pensamiento y de expresión de los historiadores desde la perspectiva de los derechos humanos. Además, define, analiza y evalúa las restricciones permisibles así como las distorsiones inaceptables de la historia. A continuación, explora la aplicación de la historia en la sociedad, primero mediante un análisis de la sabiduría política basada en la historia y después mediante un análisis de las relaciones entre escritura histórica y democracia. Concluye con algunas reflexiones sobre los tipos de trauma causados por las injusticias históricas.
Anthropology of Violent Death: Theoretical Foundations for Forensic Humanitarian Action, 2023
Observing humanity from a long-term perspective, we can easily see that the chain of succeeding g... more Observing humanity from a long-term perspective, we can easily see that the chain of succeeding generations forms a single historical community. And since these generations have passed and will pass their heritage on to each other, we can add that they also form a single moral community: if all the living together constitute "humanity," then the living, the dead, and the unborn together constitute "humanity at large." But there are notable differences among these three groups. In 2020, demographers Carl Haub and Toshiko Kaneda calculated the number of people that have ever lived on earth. They guesstimated that the total number of individuals who have been born since the dawn of humanity is 108 billion. Of these, nearly 8 billion are alive and about 100 billion dead (Toshiko and Haub 2020). Others have recently calculated the number of future people on earth. If we look at the next 50 000 years only, and assume a birth rate over that period that equals the rate in this century, the unborn would count around 6.75 trillion people (Krznaric 2020, pp. 82-83, 264). On top of these vast demographic differences between the dead, the living, and the unborn, there are three striking asymmetries between them. The dead and the unborn do not exist in the same sense as the living as the former are no more alive and the latter not yet alive. Moral principles cover not only the living, that is, people who can reciprocate or can harm and benefit each other, but also the dead and the unborn (
The Professional Historian in Public: Old and New Roles Revisited , 2023
In 2007, the American Historical Association (AHA) decided to streamline its activities in situat... more In 2007, the American Historical Association (AHA) decided to streamline its activities in situations involving "the rights and careers of individual historians, historical practice in diverse venues, or the role of history in public culture." It adopted Guiding Principles on Taking a Public Stance to help it set a course when public or private authorities, in the United States or elsewhere, exert inappropriate pressure on the historical profession. 1 The Principles identified three risk areas: 1) when these authorities threaten the preservation of, or access to, historical sources; 2) when these authorities censor practices of history or punish historians for conclusions they reach and for evidence they unearth as a result of legitimate historical inquiry; and 3) when these authorities restrict the freedom of movement of historians. The frequency with which the Principles have been applied between 2007 and 2021 is documented in the AHA archive. Between 2007 and 2013, there were only a few annual advocacy activities, but then the trend went upward from twelve activities in 2014 to fifty-two in 2021. 2 Advocacy activities specifically on behalf of historians abroad rose from one in 2014 to eleven in 2021. Commenting on this trend in late 2019a year in which the AHA had issued twenty-three advocacy letters and statements and signed onto three amicus curiae briefs-AHA executive director James Grossman saw "an upsurge" and addressed a frequently asked question: "How do we decide when to speak, and what to say? And why spend time and energy on activity that might be dismissed as merely political, or marginal to the AHA's mission?" Referring to the Principles for answers, he emphasized that "the centrality of historical thinking to all aspects of public culture and policy is why we are speaking out," adding that "as historians, we should call out egregious and unethical invocations of 'history' that undermine democratic practices and peaceful congregation." 3 The 2007 principles (last updated in 2017) at: https://www.historians.org/news-and-advocacy/ aha-advocacy/guiding-principles-on-taking-a-public-stance. I am grateful to Ruben Zeeman, my colleague at the Network of Concerned Historians since 2020, and the editors of this collection for their comments on this chapter. All websites were last revised on
This is the summary of an address given at the Third Forum on History Education, an intergovernme... more This is the summary of an address given at the Third Forum on History Education, an intergovernmental project of the Council of Europe, on "Reinforcing Historical Awareness and Culture through Higher Education: Threats and Challenges" at the University of Bologna on 17 May 2024 during the final session on "Sustainability and Future Perspectives for History Education in Higher Education."
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