We used to invent words and then yield to their power. No knowledge would be possible without words though , in the process, words would often grow into self- mastered entities, into obstacles that interpose between us and the real world. They would bestow on us both proximity to, and enstrangement from, the essence of things, whereas spiritual independence presupposes a state of semantic vigilence, a rejection of the tyranny wrought by these unavoidable lexical intermediaries. History is such a misleading word.We should be aware of this from the very beginning, since history as science is in the very special position of being homonymous with the object of its research. In other words, the task of history is to reconstitute history. We call by the same name two concepts that are, in fact, distinct, no matter how much we should like to bridge them: history in its matter- of- factness and history as representation. The imaginary always aspires to merge into reality, which is a not quite innocent heresy. And the identification ofthe two terms stems from our deeply rooted need to be anchored in the past…To us, the past means legitimacy and justification.