Introductory paper of the panel "Modern Economic History in the 21st Century: direction and vision of the field" - outline of the discourse
Abstract
The paper presented at the Congress of Czech Historians reflects on the reasons for the decline of historiographical interest in modern economic history. It reminds us that the importance of economic history for understanding the contemporary world is irreplaceable.
Efforts to marginalize the field, as evidenced by the reduction of the institutional base and the lack of funding for the development of the field, are ill-conceived and harmful in their consequences. Economics in the life of society and the individual is part of everyday life.
General history, focusing predominantly on political events, with its authorial and methodological possibilities, can hardly meet the demands placed on the complexity and methodological duality of the specialisation of modern economic history, combining history with economics. Moreover, the position of the field of economic history in the Czech Republic is complicated by its discontinuous development in relation to the Western world.
Finally, the authors reflect on possible ways to revive the field in the institutional and research sense, and to deepen its formative influence on social consciousness.