Politics of the Local Historiography

Abstract

The local historiography in Iran challenges the national historiography’s concentration on the centralization of the state and the formation of national identity. It calls into question the national historiography’s reduction or depreciation of the contribution of different regions to the formation of the Iranian state as a political community. In short, the local historiography and national historiography represent different politics of historiography. The knowledge produced by the local historiography is not merely about the deconstruction and reconstruction of the national identity to include local experiences and histories. It is about the creation of a space of contestation between different historiographical approaches to the meanings of the past and their political implications. Through the knowledge it produces, the local historiography lays claim to a particular historical awareness that justifies specific political demands. The contemporary local historiography in Iran indicates that historical knowledge is the quality of historical people. By verifying that they are capable of making sense of their past experiences, of what they want at the present, and of visualizing their future, the historical people make their own history.