Segrarnas historia : Makten, historien och friheten studerade genom exemplet Herbert Tingsten 1939-53

Sammanfattning: In this dissertation, The History of the Victors, the question of how history is used to create meaning, provide orientation in the present and indicate desirable alternative actions for the future is examined. Using a number of Swedish examples from the years 1939 to 1953, the dissertation investigates how history is used for moral, political and existential aims, with focus given to the Swedish political scientist and writer Hebert Tingsten (1896-1973).Like a large number of European intellectuals, Tingsten wrestled with questions about history, progress and Western culture in various efforts to adress 20th century crises and wartime experiences during this period.I argue that Tingsten's critique of ideological uses of history incorporates his own interpretation of history with its own moral, political and existential implications. Furthermore, I argue that Tingsten's critique of various philosophies of history is in itself one particular form of use of history; history placed in the service of life, ethics and politics, as much as it is a critique of certain epistemological doctrines about the methodolocal problems of history.