ABSTRACT
As the Italian philosopher and historian Benedetto Croce said: all history is contemporary history. A concern for contemporary problems lies behind the historian’s choice of what history to write. It is not necessarily a history of how those problems emerged. It might be a history of ancient times presented in a way to illuminate the dilemmas – and dilemma is a favourite word of Wang Gungwu – which people are currently facing. Furthermore, the historian’s task is not exhausted by explaining or illuminating the present. It continues in trying to understand the movement of forces that will shape the future and to show how a choice is to be made for the most desirable among possible futures. History is not just a bundle of facts about the past, recent or ancient. History is a way of thinking critically about the present and the future.
