Theatres of Memory - eBook

9781844679355
1-84467-935-7

When Theatres of Memory was first published in 1994, it transformed the debate about what is to be considered history and questioned the role of heritage that lies at the heart of every Western nations.

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obsession with the past. Today, in the age of Downton Abbey and Mad Men, we are once again conjuring historical fictions to make sense of our everyday lives.In this remarkable book, Samuel looks at the many different ways we use the unofficial knowledge of the past. Considering such varied areas as the fashion for retrofitting, the rise of family history, the joys of collecting old photographs, the allure of reenactment societies and televised adaptations of Dickens, Samuel transforms our understanding of the uses of history. He shows us that history is a living practice, something constantly being reassessed in the world around us.