Rethinking Sino-Japanese alienation: history problems and historical opportunities

Abstract

‘A fact is like a sack,’ E. H. Carr wrote in What is history?. ‘It won't stand up till you've put something in it.’ He was referring to what he called ‘a fetishism of facts’, or the widespread belief that—as the old saying goes—historical facts speak for themselves. ‘This is, of course, untrue’, he objected: ‘The facts speak only when the historian calls on them: it is he who decides to which facts to give the floor, and in what order or context.’ In our ‘post-truth’ age of fake news, Twitter diplomacy and neo-authoritarians, the question of historical interpretation—one that has occupied scholars for generations—has not become any easier. In this meticulously researched, courageous and important book, Barry Buzan and Evelyn Goh remind us that history presents problems as well as opportunities—and that we won't find the latter unless we first identify and address the former. The authors have...