Modern historiography embraces the notion that time is irreversible implying that the past should be imagined as something âabsentâ or âdistant. â Victims of historical injustice however in contrast often claim that the past got âstuckâ in the present and that it retains a haunting presence. History Memory and State-Sponsored Violence is centered around the provocative thesis that the way one deals with historical injustice and the ethics of history is strongly dependent on the way one conceives of historical time; that the concept of time traditionally used by historians is structurally more compatible with the perpetratorsâ than the victimsâ point of view. Demonstrating that the claim of victims about the continuing presence of the past should be taken seriously instead of being treated as merely metaphorical Berber Bevernage argues that a genuine understanding of the âirrevocableâ past demands a radical break with modern historical discourse and the concept of time. By embedding a profound philosophical reflection on the themes of historical time and historical discourse in a concrete series of case studies this project transcends the traditional divide between âempiricalâ historiography on the one hand and the so called âtheoreticalâ approaches to history on the other. It also breaks with the conventional âanalyticalâ philosophy of history that has been dominant during the last decades raising a series of long-neglected âbig questionsâ about the historical condition â questions about historical time the unity of history and the ontological status of present and past âprogrammatically pleading for a new historical ethics. . Language: English