Historian Isabel Burdiel: “The Transition Pacts were an example of common sense and the ability to learn from the past”

Historian, professor University of Valencia, Scholars from various foreign universities in England and the United States here address the question of the period from which present-day Spain broke away with a clarity unusual in the cultural and political language of the time.

He says the following about the legacy that still exists amidst forgetfulness or criticism: “They asked, and they are still asking. Transition An immaculate and transhistorical perfection that almost makes one rejoice at the thought of adolescence. Even though it’s not really funny at all. They destroyed a myth of consensus (and I use the term ‘myth’ with a sense of what I say) had the capacity to project into the future.”

His work as a historian national award Biography of Elizabeth II and Valencian Literary Criticism For the biography of Miss Emilia Pardo Bazán. Among her other books, her works include: ‘The Politics of the Magnanimous’ (Alfonso the Magnanimous, 1987), ‘Mary Wollstonecraft.’ Defense of women’s rights’ (Cátedra, 1994). ‘Mary Shelley. Frankenstein or the modern Prometheus’ (Cátedra, 1996), ‘Liberals, agitators and conspirators. ‘Heterodox biographies of the Spanish 19th century’, edition with Manuel Pérez Ledesma (Espasa, 2000). And ‘Elite Liberals’, edited by Manuel Pérez Ledesma (Marcial Pons, 2008).

We did this interview for our series ‘Emotion and History’., from a survey.

Question: Would returning to other stages of history help us better confront our current situation?

RLP Hartley said this many years ago (1953) in a novel titled ‘The Thing Between’., “The past is a foreign country. “They do things differently there.” The interesting thing is that foreign countries tell you a lot about your own country. I think history (with all its strangeness, or perhaps because of it) helps us better understand and perhaps confront the present.

Question: Just as we studied in schools, institutes, universities in the past, now there are wars, incomprehensible conflicts and extremely brutal conflicts. Where does this decision to confront and kill come from for humanity?

A. I can’t really answer that question because we’re going into the field of anthropology and biology. But I reiterate that history – with its insistence on explaining contexts, change, and the scope and limits of human action – helps us know better. And knowledge, for better or worse, is power. Many readings can be recommended in this sense, but Chris Clark’s book ‘Sleepwalkers’ is still quite instructive. How Europe went to war in 1914 and Ziblatt and Levitsky’s views on how democracies die and the oppression of the minority. I really liked it at the time, and the forerunner of these is a more historical book: Timothy Snyder’s ‘On Bullying’. ‘Twenty lessons from the 20th century’. Also ‘The road to not being free’ from the same author.

Q. You are a History professor. Which of the episodes you examined was the most incomprehensible and also the most damaging? On the contrary, which of your acquaintances do you find instructive?

A.II. In my study of Elizabeth I have tried to understand how things could have been done so badly by the Crown and also by the major liberal political parties. That is, how some of the fundamental hopes that led many people, many liberals, to support the queen in the terrible Carlist war of the 1930s were corrupted and ruined. Also closely related are the risks of the political instrumentalization of the monarchy.

Question: For example, you studied Ms. Emilia Pardo Bazán, one of the important writers in the history of Spanish literature and the symbol of the feminist struggle in our country, both as a writer and as a writer. citizen. What is the impact of this literature on women’s struggle for freedom, and do you think that literary history in general serves to understand and direct this struggle?

R. Emilia Pardo Bazán has long been considered a “loose link” in the history of Spanish feminism because of how difficult it is to find and understand the relationship between her feminism and her conservatism. I have discussed many topics in my book, but what I have tried to do regarding your question is to fully understand the combination of conservatism and progressivism in Pardo Bazán’s feminist literature and articles.

“If students still don’t know after your lessons, it’s largely your fault and doesn’t mean they don’t appreciate what a great and excellent teacher you are.”

Q. Your apprenticeship was completed abroad in England and the United States. What did you gain as an intellectual and as a citizen from this contact with British and North American teachings? So what have these countries taught you to understand the future of life?

Answer: As a historian, I have been taught to value the role of human action in historical development and the importance (indeed, a necessity) of writing history in a meaningful and comprehensible way for experts and non-experts alike. In 1990-91, at Johns Hopkins University in the USA, I explored the capacity of so-called poststructuralism for the renewal of cultural and postcolonial history. Today this is a common “diet” and already has evident diminishing returns in Spanish historiography. That’s when I became interested in the relationships between history and literature.

Question: There is an anonymous graffiti that is famous around the world, “when we got the answers, they changed the questions.” In your case as a historian, are there facts or certainties that are very different now from those that determine your beliefs or from the facts or certainties that you have known or even studied in the past?

A. In any field of research, but certainly in history, the most important thing is to be able to ask questions and formulate a problem well. These questions and problems vary with the answers given by other historians and with the interests of each period or situation. That’s what encourages it. Sometimes some of us are overly skeptical of new ways of writing history. While this is healthy to avoid being caught up in fashion and exploring the Mediterranean, it can also be a way to retreat into a comfort zone.

Question: A young journalist who discovered his own method of interpreting history asked me some questions so that I could pass them on to him. The first is: How do you see the relationship between historiography and journalism?

R. Juan, I really don’t know how to answer this. I believe that journalists are increasingly interested in history and that it is our responsibility to respond to this interest and participate in the public debate.

Question: So, in connection with this, what does the emergence of Infinite Archive, that is, Google, mean for the Science of History for the first time? Doesn’t the infinite and direct possibility of access to the archive somehow undermine the possibility of history as a form of knowledge?

A. Not necessarily. It always depends on careful use. A new field that emerged as a result of all these innovations and attracted great attention is the field of Digital Humanities.

Question: You are carrying out a very important teaching profession because of your knowledge and teaching style. What does it take to communicate with those who want to teach, teach and learn today?

A. First of all, respecting students and accepting that if they are not interested or do not know and still do not know after lessons, it is largely your fault and not a sign that they cannot appreciate how big and important it is. They are perfect. You are like a teacher. In my field, first of all, I try to teach them historical thinking. That’s the important thing.

“Savage liberalism and populism – and a certain right that follows them – have no interest in quality education and know that their power and influence depends on their ability to erode public schools and universities.”

Question: Since teaching, especially history teaching, is very important in terms of promoting coexistence and making people more familiar with knowledge, do you think there is a concern about improving the university or school in our country?

A. It depends on who we talk to. Wild liberalism and populism – and a certain right-wing segment that follows them – have no interest in quality education and know that their power and influence depends on their ability to erode public schools and universities. It’s very worrying because this is not just our problem. We are at a decisive and frankly alarming historical juncture on a global scale.

Question: This series of interviews with historians seeks to find wisdom in those who study the past to interpret the present. question inside The meaning I give to my historian friends is whether parts of history shed light on interpretation, whether they provide plausibility for responses that would make the present moment intelligible or better. It’s the question that opens and closes this special series, so to speak. In which areas of life and struggle for survival do you find the common sense features that I researched as a journalist?

A. I believe that Transition Pacts, with all their limitations, are an example of common sense and the ability to learn from one’s own past. The common sense and capacity for dialogue and consensus between opposites (it is very easy to agree with the same or the like) were denigrated in terms that in many cases displayed zero historical awareness: that is, they ignored the context in which this took place. Political scientists are very committed to this. It is not strange that Pablo Iglesias is one of them. They wanted, and still want, from the Transition an immaculate and transhistorical perfection that is almost pleasing with its youthful thought. Even though it’s not really funny at all. They destroyed the myth (and I use the term ‘myth’ consciously of what I mean) of a consensus capable of projecting into the future. Societies need myths, and as Lévi-Strauss said, “myths are lies that tell the truth.”