Historical Choice and the Meaning of Events

Being and Nothingness

This thread follows how free projects reinterpret political events and give the past a changing public meaning.

increasing

Bearing strength in each event

decreasing

The Bastille as an Event The Bastille as an Event from "Being and Nothingness". The Bastille as an Event Fact and Meaning The taking of the fortress is a factual event, but its historical meaning is not fixed by the event alone.

The Bastille as an Event from "Being and Nothingness". The Bastille as an Event Fact and Meaning The taking of the fortress is a factual event, but its historical meaning is not fixed by the event alone.

The Bastille as an Event Fact and Meaning The taking of the fortress is a factual event, but its historical meaning is not fixed by the event alone. Competing Readings It may be treated as an isolated revolt or as the beginning of a new political force, depending on the projects that interpret it.

A Revolutionary Past A Revolutionary Past from "Being and Nothingness". A Revolutionary Past The Meaning of Action Later actors may inherit an earlier event as a precedent, a warning, or a source of political legitimacy.

A Revolutionary Past from "Being and Nothingness". A Revolutionary Past The Meaning of Action Later actors may inherit an earlier event as a precedent, a warning, or a source of political legitimacy.

A Revolutionary Past The Meaning of Action Later actors may inherit an earlier event as a precedent, a warning, or a source of political legitimacy. Responsibility Their choices do not change what happened, but they determine how the event functions in their present situation.

American Memory of France American Memory of France from "Being and Nothingness". American Memory of France Shared History A political project can present relations between nations as a debt or inheritance.

American Memory of France from "Being and Nothingness". American Memory of France Shared History A political project can present relations between nations as a debt or inheritance.

American Memory of France Shared History A political project can present relations between nations as a debt or inheritance. The narrative makes a collective past available for present action. Selective Recovery A different political choice could emphasize other historical ties. The public story is made through the interests it claims to express.

War Reorders the Interwar Years

War Reorders the Interwar Years Retrospective Naming The years before a later war can be grouped as an interval between conflicts. That label becomes possible through the events that follow. Temporal Reframing A new future turns an earlier present into a bounded and surpassed period, changing its historical meaning without changing its dates.

History Remains in Suspense History Remains in Suspense from "Being and Nothingness". History Remains in Suspense No Final View The historian and the political community remain inside history.

History Remains in Suspense from "Being and Nothingness". History Remains in Suspense No Final View The historian and the political community remain inside history.

History Remains in Suspense No Final View The historian and the political community remain inside history. Neither can take an absolute standpoint that fixes every event's meaning. Conflict of Projects Historical interpretations remain open to future choices, and the past continues to be assumed, contested, and reorganized.

Part Four, Chapter One, discussion of the past and history

Part Four, Chapter One, discussion of revolutionary memory

Part Four, Chapter One, example of political history

Part Four, Chapter One, reference to 1918–1939

Part Four, Chapter One, concluding discussion of history