ABSTRACT
I want to argue that we need history (albeit a rehabilitated and chastened, less monolithic and confident, history following its encounter with the postmodern turn) in order to understand better the ways that we establish hierarchies. Constructing boundaries is not a neutral exercise in extracting facts but can be an exercise in power, open to revision. This chapter starts from the premise that seeing history in context is vital if we are to understand our current multifaceted conditions. I contend it is important to understand how our perceptions of others have changed across the centuries so as to inform our understanding of our own attitudes in the present as contingent and constructed. History requires an acknowledgement of time and space and, for young people in particular, images are an important non-verbal reference in visualising and imagining ‘others’. Reflecting on images teaches us that they are not a mirror of essential, immutable truths but subject to interpretation and reappraisal.
