The past as battlefield
| Published date | 01 July 2023 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/14748851221098190 |
| Date | 01 July 2023 |
| Subject Matter | Symposium on Tomba's Insurgent Universality |
The past as battlefield
Massimiliano Tomba
History of Consciousness, University of California,
Santa Cruz, USA
Abstract
What is the practice and the role of the historian? What does it mean to dig into margin-
alized and silenced histories? What does it mean to reactivate the contents of past insur-
gent moments? And who has the power to do it? These are some of the important
questions that my generous interlocutors raise in their comments regarding the meth-
odology, and the historiographical and political approach of my book. Indeed, Insurgent
Universality outlines an alternative historiography capable of reactivating the histories of
the struggling oppressed by putting their past attempts of liberation at the service of pol-
itical and social alternatives to the present.
The task of my historiography is to present the past as a battlefield, which begins from
the very political assumptions that often operate behind the historian’s back, and to pro-
vide a new viewpoint from which other political trajectories of modernity can be
disclosed.
Keywords
History, Insurgent Universality, political theory, revolution, Norman yoke
In thanking my reviewers for their generous and insightful comments, I must acknow-
ledge that their questions have helped me to clarify some assumptions of my work that
are often left implicit in the text, that other times have remained in the author’s pen,
and still at other times have not entirely been thought out. That’s what discussions are
for. We never just think on our own.
The questions posed by my interlocutors reflect three broad domains: the affective
place of the pre-modern, the status of colonial structures, and the politics of
Corresponding author:
Massimiliano Tomba, History of Consciousness, University of California, Santa Cruz, 1156 High Street, Santa
Cruz 95064-1077, USA.
Email: mtomba@ucsc.edu
Symposium on Tomba’sInsurgent Universality
European Journal of Political Theory
2023, Vol. 22(3) 509–519
© The Author(s) 2022
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/14748851221098190
journals.sagepub.com/home/ept
To continue reading
Request your trial