The selectivity of historical representation

The practical issues encountered in writing a book and the guidance of recent postmodernist scholarship in History prompt this analysis of historical representation. The analysis reveals that selectivity and subjectivity permeate the writing of historical narratives from the selection of facts to the combining of those facts into a story. Assessing historical narratives is also a subjective exercise. Recognition of this selectivity and subjectivity does not lead to the despair of relativism but rather to the emancipation of scholarship from prevailing conformities. (C) 1997 Academic Press Limited.