this is interesting padraig. im still trying to work out my position on it.
https://libcom.org/library/when-insurrections-die
https://libcom.org/library/when-insurrections-die
the withering away of the state seems a lot more likely to produce a dystopia than the obverse, at least to me. tech bro philosopher-kings, panopticon societies, etc.
I am trying to make an opening in theory to encapsulate the conservative tendancies of the left as well.
good vs bad nations.
personal as opposed to impersonal domination. the naturalisation of personal domination as transhistorical.
who knows what would have happened if the uprisings spread to Russia and Putin was overthrown? none of us tbh.
Is there a conservative school, generation or tendency we are referring to?
Thomas Carlyle
Thucydides as opposed to Herotodus
Austrian School as opposed to Frankfurt School
The Practice of History as opposed to What Is History
also there's overlap between a conservative view of history and historians who are conservatives but they're not the same thing
you could say the same thing for a "liberal view of history", "Marxist view of history", etc
it's a map is not the territory situation
the far right realised that they couldn't go full scale palingenesis.
they saw what happened with cats like Pinochet and the Greek colonels. or the KKK here. their brain trust types ain't stupid like the rank + file.couldn't go full scale palingenesis
haven't read anything by Niall Ferguson but I have to imagine yes. Victor Davis Hanson.
but idk as we're specifically talking about historians so much as like the title says "view of history", as it informs one's world view
the why and the how of history - why do people do the things they do, why do events occur as they do - rather than the what
historians and historiography play a large if usually indirect role in framing that view, outlining its boundaries.
Tangential hit and run post that I'll try and develop later - I'll admit that disliking Corbyn and his associates as much as I do has pushed me back into more Conservative positions. Interesting to observe in oneself, it's like hairs coming out of your nostrils as you get older - "Hmmm, maybe Alistair Campbell isn't that bad after all".