Critical Theory of Post-1900 History

The application of Critical Theory to history after 1900—examining how recent history is constructed, how it serves contemporary politics, and what's at stake in its telling. Critical Theory of Post-1900 History asks: Who writes the history of the recent past? How do contemporary power relations shape what's remembered and what's forgotten? How are histories of trauma, revolution, and resistance told—and by whom? Drawing on memory studies and critical historiography, it insists that post-1900 history is never just the past—it's the present arguing about itself through stories of what just happened.

"We know what happened, we were there, they say. Critical Theory of Post-1900 History asks: do we? Memory is selective, contested. The same events are remembered differently by victors and victims. Post-1900 history isn't settled; it's fought over. Critical theory insists on asking: whose memory counts, and whose is erased—and what does that tell us about power today?"

Critical Theory of Post-1900 History by Abzugal Nammugal Enkigal March 4, 2026