Abstract
An 1867 quotation from Norwegian historian Ernst Sars forms the basis of a discussion of the relevance of morality and truth in the academic study of history. Noting the work of philosophers and historians such as Frode Nyeng, Erling Sandmo, Espen Schaanning, Trond Berg Eriksen, Kåre Tonnesson, Marc Bloch, and Hannah Arendt, the author considers the role of objective truth and national feeling in the study of history and examines the meaning of morality and its effects on the perception of good and evil and judgment of events. Also discussed is the historian's moral responsibility to tell the truth, with reference to the views of Ottar Dahl, Tzvetan Todorov, Arthur Koestler, and Tor Egil Forland, and the effect of modern beliefs in God's death or impotence on human moral responsibility and the possibility of progress. The author's concluding view is that history is a moral and political science which has to take students' moral beliefs and values into account.