Past and present of the historian's profession: links between history, politics and memory

Abstract

This work synthesizes the intervention, carried out in front of students of the different careers that are taught at the Faculty of Philosophy and Humanities of the National University of Cordoba, focusing on the past and present of the historian's profession. Firstly, we reviewed the beginnings of this profession in our environment, linked to the Institute of Americanist Studies created in 1936 while we reconstructed the periodization of historical studies in Argentina. Secondly, from the consideration of the links between history, politics and memory, we asked ourselves about the place of history in society where different political and social actors make use of the past to legitimize their place in the present. We exemplify these relationships through the debate that took place in 1934 around the publication of the History of the Argentine Nation, promoted by the Junta de Historia y Numismática. Finally, we emphasize that many of the issues that we are currently discussing are present in this debate: who writes history/models of historians; who are the recipients of these stories; what kind of history should be written; who are the subjects, the actors of these stories; the links between the history produced and the history taught; the uses of the past in the processes of legitimization of power.