ON THE POSSIBILITY OF WRITING CONTEMPORARY HISTORY

Traditional historians limit the scope of history to events which occured outside
living memory. The main concern is whether it is possible to study the
contemporary period objectively using a scientific approach. From the traditional
historians’ point of view, a historian who studies his own time cannot be objective,
and cannot adopt a scientific approach succesfully. Their belief is that events as
recent as fifty years ago should not be the study of historians. As a result of this
point of view, contemporary history is still struggling to gain recognation. This
essay will analyse some of the problem areas concerning contemporary history and
will examine the accuracy of the traditionalist claims and the possibility of writing
a valid contemporary history.