Afterword: The Loose Ends of Time

This afterword offers a set of conceptual and methodological reflections on the essays in “The Loose Ends of History.” It traces the motif of “loose ends” back to its early modern roots and locates this collection in the context of three historiographical developments: microhistory, the “archival turn,” and the ethical imperative to recover silenced voices. It welcomes this special issue as a valuable provocation to healthy self-reflection on the historian’s craft and to renewed critical thinking about what it means to do and write History.