History of Now
The History of Now
An Initiative of the MIT History Faculty
September 2025
The great French medieval historian Marc Bloch observed in 1941 that “[m]isunderstanding of the present is the inevitable consequence of ignorance of the past.” But the historian can “wear himself out just as fruitlessly in seeking to understand the past, if he is totally ignorant of the present.” Bloch’s classic statement from The Historian’s Craft captures the tension between antiquarianism and presentism that is the productive condition of powerful and enduring histories. The risk of anachronism notwithstanding, it is sometimes necessary for the historian to “unwind the spool in the opposite direction from that in which the pictures were taken.” The great calling of history is to “join the study of the dead and of the living.”[1]
Though he did not use the phrase, Marc Bloch is the great philosopher of the History of Now, the name of a major new initiative of the MIT History faculty at the intersection of past and present under the inaugural guidance of Professors Kenda Mutongi and Eric Goldberg. History is both invisible and omnipresent in the conflicts of the contemporary world. It is invisible when the polarizing logic of conflict itself overcomes the ability of present-day actors to appreciate their rootedness in, and vulnerability to, the past. In such circumstances, history’s capacity to generate understanding and empathy is frequently overcome by the human impulse to identify along national, tribal, sectarian, and other dividing lines. In other circumstances, the past itself becomes an instrument of division. Conflicts over the future of democracy are often accompanied by efforts to weaponize history, amplified by the reductionist discourse of social media silos. In recent decades we have seen “history wars” erupt with disturbing regularity, both in the United States and across the globe. Next year’s 250th anniversary of American independence, or the current 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, create broad fora for contestation over the meaning and legacy of momentous historical events. In places as diverse as Haiti, Russia, Kenya, India, and the Middle East, contemporary actors have tried to harness national founding narratives to secure political advantage based on tendentious readings of the past.
In the humanistic spirit exemplified by Marc Bloch, the History of Now (HoN) initiative aims to organize our collective expertise to respond to this increasingly prevalent instrumentalization of the past. Because they themselves are rooted in the present, historians are not free of the temptation or the responsibility to judge. But their fundamental commitment is always to understand, and when they judge, they do so in a way distinct from the partisan verdicts of the courtroom or of battle. To bring this kind of detached but not indifferent sensibility to bear on the understanding of the contemporary world is the mission of the History of Now.
The History of Now website is currently under construction. Please come back soon for updates, interviews, and reports about the exciting work of the MIT History faculty and their perspectives on current events!
[1] Marc Bloch, The Historian’s Craft, trans. Peter Putnam (New York: Vintage, 1953), 43, 46-47.