Date: Mon, 25 Sep 1995 11:24:05 -0500 From: H-GERMAN EDITOR Dan
Rogers Reply to: H-NET List on German History To: Multiple
recipients of list H-GERMAN Subject: Meaning of "Postmodernism"
Submitted by: Jonathan Sperber Since Thomas Schmitz has
mentioned my name in conjunction with historians' fears about
post-modernism, it might not be inappropriate for me to use his
explanation of this intellectual movement as an example of what
I had in mind. It seems to me that Schmitz's brief statement
illustrates two of the major problems I (and many other
historians) have with post-modernism in historical studies: (1)
its proponents attributing to themselves ideas and practices
long common in the profession; (2) these same proponents making
provocative statements, whose logical consequences they are ill-
prepared to face. To point one, concerning the necessity of
studying the past exclusively through texts authored by other
human beings with a different view of the world. Schmitz,
following many post-modernists, makes fun