The Leibniz Research Alliance “Value of the Past” and the Leibniz Association have enabled the open access publication of the English-language handbook “Historical Authenticity. A Transdisciplinary Compendium.” This is a revised and updated version of the previously published German edition “Historische Authentizität” (Wallstein, 2022). The handbook, edited by Martin Sabrow and Achim Saupe (both ZZF Potsdam), features two contributions by former PRIF researcher Christoph Kohl.
As a central category, “historical authenticity” captures the growing significance of the supposedly “real” in society’s approach to the past. In 70 articles arranged in alphabetical order, the contributing authors examine the complexity of the phenomenon and its occurrence in various academic, museological, and historical-cultural contexts. They show how today's attitude toward the past is shaped by an intense desire for historical authenticity – a phenomenon that developed a new dynamic in the last third of the 20th century – and its practical manifestations. For example, Christoph Kohl uses historical examples from (West) African countries in his contribution to show how explosive combinations of discourses on authenticity and ideas of autochthony, i.e., of being “native” or “indigenous,” can arise.
The compendium also reflects on how the desire for the “real,” the “authentic,” and the “original” has changed over the centuries – and why today it often goes hand in hand with a longing to experience history “up close” (as expressed in the attention given to historical witnesses or the popularity of historical reenactments). It is this desire for authenticity, as Christoph Kohl points out in his second contribution, that also populist actors exploit to spread their narratives.
The contributions collected in this handbook thus highlight the importance of analyzing academic, cultural, institutional, and political processes of authentication for a critical understanding of the perceptions of the past.
Christoph Kohl was a researcher in PRIF's Junior Research Group “Political Globalisation and its Cultural Dynamics” . He recently published the PRIF Working Paper “Simulating Norm Transition” on international efforts to reform the security sector in Guinea-Bissau, West Africa.