Thread by @AustHistAssoc

We’re now in the midst of the 6th great extinction & facing runaway climate breakdown that puts humanity at a crossroads of active transition, or business as usual leading to ↗️ ecological devastation and international disorder within decades. How can history help? A thread. AG

History alerts us to hidden causes and quiet motors of change - chief among them the malleable endurance of capitalism and colonialism. It provides the stories by which we can understand our current predicaments. Without it we are groping in the dark.

History is for the long haul. It can chart the delayed and hidden destruction of what Rob Nixon calls ‘slow violence’; there is also an important role for history in holding wrong-doers to account, beyond the rapid churn of media story cycles. There is no justice without history.

History - an incomplete catalogue of possibilities - can provide hope. Right now we need ‘hope with teeth’ (China Miéville via @EganHistory ) and history yields inspiring stories of how thoughtful and committed people have achieved unlikely, rapid change at a range of scales.

As Rebecca Solnit writes: “the most important battle is often in the collective imagination, and it is won in part by books, ideas, songs, speeches, even new words and frameworks for old evils.” theguardian.com/books/2019/jun…

Which historical figures or stories sustain you every day? Today for me it's Isabel Flick; thanks to
@heather586 and @ConversationEDU theconversation.com/hidden-women-o…