The New Profile of Peruvian History

Extract

In the last decade in Peru, there have been substantive changes in thinking about Peruvian history and society. Although this change is visible in all the social sciences, in a special way economic analysis and historical investigation have made some important gains. Economics no longer consists, in the works of its better adherents, of vague meditations or the crude accounting of a druggist; and historical studies are also finally beginning to reach a minimal level of seriousness. Once the end product of only a few particularly lucid minds, the concept that we have today of history and the work of the historian is now shared by a much larger group. It is interesting, therefore, to see where these changes have been made, not only because of the academic necessity of giving a correct accounting, but also because the outlines of this new consciousness of its past that Peruvian society is acquiring need to be underscored. The study of history in Peru, more than any other social science, is part of the continual struggle to redraw the past of Peruvian society and to destroy the collective amnesia of the masses. These two objectives have always been sought but only now are they being achieved by works of indisputable rigor.