Voorbeeld en voorganger. Robert Fruin en Godefroid Kurth als vaders van de geschiedwetenschap

Abstract

Model and Predecessor: Robert Fruin and Godefroid Kurth as Fathers of Historical Scholarship
This article explores not how historians study collective memories, but how they create and nourish (professional) memory cultures of their own. It examines how historians commemorate their predecessors and celebrate their historiographical achievements. The case studies chosen are Robert Fruin (1823-1899) and Godefroid Kurth (1847-1916), both of whom were hailed as ‘father of history’ by Dutch and Belgian admirers, respectively, in the late nineteenth century. Tracing the fortunes of Fruin’s and Kurth’s reputations throughout the twentieth century, the article shows that this ‘father of history’ metaphor acquired rather diverse meanings. These shifting meanings not only mirrored changing ideals of scholarly practice, but also reflected institutional concerns, religious or ideological partisanship, and growing concerns over the habit of conceiving of historical scholarship in national terms. Finally, the article recommends further research on the affective and emotional dimensions of fatherhood in nineteenth and twentieth-century historiography.