Abstract

Historical thought resembles the model of human consciousness in that the destruction of information, rather than its transmission, constitutes the major activity of both systems. The destruction of information is structured and may be analyzed. Analysis of missing or destroyed information reveals a phenomenology of missing information, ranging in kind from the unrecorded to the unimaginable. Some categories of missing information are usually dismissed as fictitious or imaginary by normal historical practice. However, a close examination suggests that standard historical writing uses tacit conventions not so different from certain highly controversial current trends