(THE DEATH OF) THE ETHICS OF HISTORICAL PRACTICE (AND WHY I AM NOT INMOURNING)

The ethics of professional historical practice in the United States, a s traditionally understood, rested on a consensus about the purpose of historical scholarship, central to which were assumptions about the n ature of historical facts, the relationship between facts and truth, a nd the social functions that factual and truthful historical accounts would perform. Over the past generation, these assumptions have come t o be widely questioned, which has entailed the collapse of the consens us that sustained the traditional ethics of historical practice. The a uthor suggests that rather than being deplorable, this represents a we lcome development, making possible a more realistic understanding of t he nature of historical scholarship.