史学与现实的关系是史学理论研究的永恒主题之一,如英国史学家卡尔所言,史学“是现在跟过去之间的永无止境的问答交谈”。我们从那些史学名著和有持续影响的史学流派中总能感到时代脉搏的跳动。当年马克思主义史学产生的一个原因就是经典作家对资本主义社会和现实生活中工人苦难的深切关注。同样,今天马克思主义史学的发展也需要不断注入新的时代精神,满足新的社会需要。为此,编辑部特邀几位史学工作者笔谈,意在促使史学界同仁更积极地思考和探索史学的社会责任,因为这实在是史学专业能否真正在社会中立足和发展的关键问题。 The relationship between history and reality is one of the eternal themes of the study of the history theory. As the British historian Carl argues, history is “a never-ending question-and-answer conversation between the present and the past.” We can always feel the pulse of the times from those historiography and historically influential schools of thought. One of the reasons for the birth of Marxist historiography in the past years was the deep concern of classical writers about the suffering of capitalist society and the workers in real life. Similarly, the development of Marxist historiography today needs to constantly inject new spirit of the times to meet new social needs. For this reason, the editorial department invited several historians to write down their speeches in an attempt to encourage historians and colleagues to think and explore the social responsibility of historiography more actively because this is a crucial issue that whether or not historiography professionals can really gain a foothold in society.