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In this book Joan Wallach Scott discusses the role history has played as an arbiter of right and wrong and of those who claim to act in its name—"in the name of history." Scott investigates three different instances in which repudiation of the past was conceived as a way to a better future: the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg in 1946, the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 1996, and the ongoing movement for reparations for slavery in the United States. Scott shows how in these cases history was not only used to explain the past but to produce a particular future. Yet both past and future were subject to the political realities of their time and defined in terms of moral absolutes, often leading to deep contradictions. These three instances demonstrate that history is not an impartial truth, rather its very meaning is constructed by those who act in its name

France today is in the throes of a crisis about whether to represent social differences within its political system and, if so, how. It is a crisis defined by the rhetoric of a universalism that takes the abstract individual to be the representative not only of citizens but also of the nation. In Parité! Joan Wallach Scott shows how the requirement for abstraction has led to the exclusion of women from French politics. During the 1990s, le mouvement pour la parité successfully campaigned for women's inclusion in elective office with an argument that is unprecedented in the annals of feminism

"In 2004, the French government instituted a ban on the wearing of "conspicuous signs" of religious affiliation in public schools. Though the ban applies to everyone, it is aimed at Muslim girls wearing headscarves. Proponents of the law insist it upholds France's values of secular liberalism and regard the headscarf as symbolic of Islam's resistance to modernity. The Politics of the Veil is an explosive refutation of this view, one that bears important implications for us all. Joan Wallach Scott, the renowned pioneer of gender studies, argues that the law is symptomatic of France's failure to integrate its former colonial subjects as full citizens. She examines the long history of racism behind the law as well as the ideological barriers thrown up against Muslim assimilation. She emphasizes the conflicting approaches to sexuality that lie at the heart of the debate--how French supporters of the ban view sexual openness as the standard for normalcy, emancipation, and individuality, and the sexual modesty implicit in the headscarf as proof that Muslims can never become fully French. Scott maintains that the law, far from reconciling religious and ethnic differences, only exacerbates them. She shows how the insistence on homogeneity is no longer feasible for France--or the West in general--and how it creates the very "clash of civilizations" said to be at the root of these tensions. The Politics of the Veil calls for a new vision of community where common ground is found amid our differences, and where the embracing of diversity--not its suppression--is recognized as the best path to social harmony"--Http://www.loc.gov/catdir/enhancements/fy0834/2007013953-d.html

Abstract
In this essay, I explore the relationship between the politics of the production of knowledge and partisan attempts to interfere with it. I argue that, despite changing historical contexts, the line between this politics (understood as contests about meaning and power) and partisanship has never been secured. That is because there is a tension inherent in knowledge production that cannot be resolved by legislation, administrative fiat, or academic punditry. Academic freedom mediates the tension but does not resolve it because knowledge production is inherently critical of prevailing norms (whether in the sciences, social sciences, or humanities)-norms whose partisans seek to defend their integrity and their truth. The tension between politics and partisanship is the state (or the fate) of democratic higher education in America.

Abstract"Archive Angst" is a meditation on one historian's attempt to create her own archive and the questions and challenges it poses.

O gênero ainda é "uma categoria útil" de análise? O artigo sugere que pode ter perdido seu propósito crítico. O gênero não apenas se tornou uma forma banal de caracterizar a diferença entre os sexos, mas também tem impedido as feministas de atender às sérias questões colocadas por novas pesquisas biológicas e psicológicas. A autora não sugere que apaguemos o gênero e as noções úteis associadas a ele do nosso vocabulário, o que constitui não apenas uma tarefa impossível, mas que nega a flexibilidade e a mobilidade da linguagem e seu papel crucial como agência de mudança. Em vez disso, o artigo argumenta que as feministas precisam seguir em frente, buscando novas palavras e novos conceitos, ou talvez redistribuições e reformulações de ideias existentes.