Outcomes of Research on Morocco’s 20th Century History: An Evaluation

Abstract

This paper aims to monitor what has been accomplished in the field of Moroccan historical studies regarding the contemporary and current period and question it, and to closely examine the outcome of this recent historical research experience. Despite the importance and value of the accumulation of what has been accomplished in academic historical research on the contemporary era, and its qualitative and quantitative development as well, the paper recorded the continuation of shadow areas that have not been deeply explored, and have not been dissected with renewed problematic questions filled with a critical sense. There has been no real accumulation in approaching the economic, social, and cultural transformations brought about by the “colonial shock.” The same also applies to historical research related to the political system, structures, and administrative devices related to the mechanisms of operation of the protection system, in addition to the lack of historical production in the spirit of composition, which remains a deferred ambition. , in light of the inability of historians to move from monographic works to comprehensive studies of a synthetic and historical nature, which are still numbered on tiptoe. Regarding the history of the present time, the paper recorded the openness of Moroccan historians to this problematic historical field, in parallel with the political detente in which the country entered at the beginning of the 1990s. However, the penetration of this new field in historical research is still limited. Because of the extremely difficult and complex cognitive and methodological issues and problems related to it.