Chapters in Books (History)

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Pitfalls of a profession : Afrikaner historians and the notion of an "objective-scientific" approach in perspective
(African Sun Media, 2020) Grundlingh, Albert
From about the 1930s until late into the twentieth century, professional historical writing in Afrikaner circles was closely linked to the universities, and the universities in turn played a significant role in promoting the wider nationalist enterprise. History was regarded as a crucial discipline: the past was needed to legitimate the present. In an influential text written in 1941 on Afrikaans universities, the importance of the past was emphasised in near-religious terms: the “calling” and “destination” of the Afrikaner people were predetermined by their past and the “volk” therefore had a duty to honour and obey the sanctity of that past.