Mythos: rhetorisch wirksam gemachte Geschichte

In this article, it is argued that history and narration in the ancient rhetoric were (mostly) used as an argument for reaching their own objectives. This attitude towards history is essentially mythical and pragmatic, disregarding the special context of a particular event. At the beginning of the 19th century, there was a time when a critical spirit evolved amongst positivist historians and suppressed the pragmatic view of history. This evoked a response not only from intellectuals such as Nietzsche and Croce, but also from fascists – especially Mussolini – putting the emphasis again on and taking up the old tradition of the rhetorical use of history.