(No) Peace with the Past: Politics of History Today
Why we need imagination and critical history in politics
Susan Legêne, professor of political history (2008-2025), discusses in her valedictory speech how all around us history is being invoked in today’s political debates, commemorative practices and heritage initiatives. History is being invoked as an explanation for today, as a call to action, as an expression of longing for a past bygone, in sympathy for past authoritarianism or as a warning to let history not repeat itself.
In December 2025 EU President Ursula von der Leyen stated: ‘Yesterday's peace is gone. We have no time to indulge in nostalgia. What matters is – how we confront today. We cannot afford to let the world views of others define us.’ But what then defines us, what past-developments determine the world of today? In Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o’s epic poem The perfect nine, Gĩkũyũ the progenitor expresses a core value that should define all of us: “Every human is human because of other humans.”
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