Learn More About the Program  It is often acknowledged that
historical arguments and historical traditions play an important
role in the creation of nations and national identities. Just
recently, for example, a group of distinguished American
historians set out to delineate a set of ‘National Standards for
History’ offering the following justification: “Without history,
a society shares no common memory of where it has been, of what
its core values are, or of what decisions of the past account
for present circumstances.”1 Such sentiments are not simply a
product of our current political climate, nor are they just an
American phenomenon: various expressions of belief in a vital
relationship between history and national identity are to be
found in conflicts over aboriginal history in Australia, in the
defense of national revivalist histories of Eastern Europe, in
the critical stance of postcolonial or subaltern histories, and
in ongoing debates over Britain’s ‘heritage industry’.  As such
debates make clear, h