Vol. 20 No. 1-2 (2014): ΧΑΡΑΚΤΗΡ ΑΡΕΤΑΣ: Donum natalicium BERNARDO SEIDENSTICKER ab amicis oblatum
Articles

What Happened in Stockholm? Moses Finley, the Mainz Akademie, and East Bloc Historians

Daniel P. Tompkins
Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Published 2015-05-20

Keywords

  • International Committee of Historical Sciences = Comité International des Sciences historiques,
  • M. I. Finley,
  • Karl Marx,
  • Friedrich Vittinghoff,
  • Joseph Vogt

How to Cite

Tompkins, D. P. (2015). What Happened in Stockholm? Moses Finley, the Mainz Akademie, and East Bloc Historians. Hyperboreus, 20(1-2), 436-452. https://doi.org/10.36950/hyperboreus.OYGB1286

Abstract

The 1960 International Congress of Historical Science at Stockholm was marked by presentations that reflected the tensions of the Cold War. For ancient historians, the critical event was the sessions on slavery, when S. Lauffer and F. Vittinghoff delivered fierce attacks on Marxist historiography as they understood it. The structure of the conference precluded responses in kind, so this essay quickly reviews Eastern Bloc historiography from 1930 up to 1960, with particular attention to E. M. Staerman, J. Pecírka, and I. Hahn, concluding that Marxist social and economic history had positive features. In conclusion, the essay takes up the response of M. I. Finley, who was present at the event and developed his own critique of the Mainz Academie and its leader, Joseph Vogt.