Writing History: Past Tense versus Present Tense

Earlier this week, I wrote about verb tense and knowing when to use past perfect tense in historical writing. This was in response to Laura asking me for a post on verb tense in historical writing. Thanks again to Laura for the great suggestion for a series of posts!

This time, we’re going to focus on whether it’s okay to use present tense in historical writing, which generates a lot of debate and controversy within history writing circles.

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Writing History: Past Tense versus Past Perfect Tense

Laura recently requested I write about tense, especially in relation to historical writing, and I’m glad she did! It’s a great topic that can be confusing, and there’s a lot of debate in the historical writing community about what tense to use then. It can—dare I say—get tense.

I am going to break my coverage of tense in historical writing into two different posts—one that clarifies when to use past perfect versus past tense (a relatively uncontroversial topic) and another that covers the use of present tense in historical writing (which stirs a lot of debate).

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