History as Wonder

History and Wonder is a refreshing new take on the idea of history that tracks the entanglement of history and philosophy over time through the key idea of wonder. From Ancient Greek histories and wonder works, to Islamic curiosities and Chinese strange histories, through to European historical cabinets of curiosity and on to histories that grapple with the horrors of the Holocaust, Marnie Hughes-Warrington unpacks the ways in which historians throughout the ages have tried to make sense of the world, and to change it. This book considers histories and historians across time and space, including the Ancient Greek historian Polybius, the medieval texts by historians such as Bede in England and Ibn Khaldun in Islamic Historiography, and the more recent works by Martin Heidegger, Luce Irigaray and Ranajit Guha among others. It explores the different ways in which historians have called upon wonder to cross boundaries between the past and the present, the universal and the particular, the old and the new, and the ordinary and the extraordinary. Promising to both delight and unsettle, it shows how wonder works as the beginning of historiography. Accessible, engaging and wide-ranging, History as Wonder provides an original addition to the field of historiography that is ideal for those both new to and familiar with the study of history

History as Wonder

History and Wonder is a refreshing new take on the idea of history that tracks the entanglement of history and philosophy over time through the key idea of wonder. From Ancient Greek histories and wonder works, to Islamic curiosities and Chinese strange histories, through to European historical cabinets of curiosity and on to histories that grapple with the horrors of the Holocaust, Marnie Hughes-Warrington unpacks the ways in which historians throughout the ages have tried to make sense of the world, and to change it. This book considers histories and historians across time and space, including the Ancient Greek historian Polybius, the medieval texts by historians such as Bede in England and Ibn Khaldun in Islamic Historiography, and the more recent works by Martin Heidegger, Luce Irigaray and Ranajit Guha among others. It explores the different ways in which historians have called upon wonder to cross boundaries between the past and the present, the universal and the particular, the old and the new, and the ordinary and the extraordinary. Promising to both delight and unsettle, it shows how wonder works as the beginning of historiography. Accessible, engaging and wide-ranging, History as Wonder provides an original addition to the field of historiography that is ideal for those both new to and familiar with the study of history

The Small Politics of Everyday Life: Local History Society Archives and the Production of Public Histories

Thousands of small, private archives sit in attics, cupboard, church halls and computer hard drives around the country; they are the archives of local history societies. Simultaneously freed from the control of archives sector and government initiatives, and yet saturated with local peculiarities and biases, local history society archives can seem to be the very antithesis of the wider archives movement, apparently private and parochial, undemocratic and uncatalogued. Consequently, local history society archives are rarely included in ‘the politics of the archive’ discussions. But if the activity of archiving is to be understood as a political act, what are the politics and meanings of local history and their archives? In this article, I suggest that certain types of local history society archive collections can help us paint a picture of the everyday lives of working-class people in Britain in the twentieth century. They detail the small politics of people’s lives – family, work, leisure, and beliefs. They give ordinary people a name, a face, and a life lived. Moreover, the workings of local history society archives raise important questions about historical production, for these groups play a significant role in rescuing and preserving archival collections, and in creating and curating their own histories

World and global history

9 page(s

Coloring universal history : Robert Benjamin Lewis's 'Light and Truth' (1843) and William Wells Brown's 'The Black Man' (1863)

The idea of universal history is conventionally associated with nineteenth-century writers and the project of imperialism. This article presents an expanded definition of universal history, one that covers unified histories of the known world or universe, histories that aim to illuminate universal principles, histories of the world unified by the workings of a single mind, and histories of the world that have passed down through unbroken lines of transmission. Encompassed in the broader range of this definition are works by authors who are conventionally seen as marginalized by nineteenth-century historiography. Using the works of two African American authors—Robert Benjamin Lewis and William Wells Brown—as a case study, this article highlights the complexities and cross currents of universal history writing by those on the margins, and the importance of voluntary associations in the production and circulation of their texts.32 page(s

Postmodernism [encyclopaedia entry]

3 page(s

History goes to the movies : studying history on film

History Goes to the Movies is written from an international perspective and, blending theoretical and methodological issues with lots of real examples. Do historical films necessarily make bad (or good) history? Can film be used as historical evidence? Are documentaries more useful to historians than historical drama? This book considers that history is not simply to be found in films, but in the agreements and arguments of those who make and view them

The History on film reader

Offers readers an introduction to just under 30 critical and representative writings on the relationship between film and history.These writings represent a combination of insights from film theory, cultural studies, historiography, the history of cinema, and, film promotion and reception.The film in history / Pierre Sorlin -- 'Any resemblance to persons living or dead' : film and the challenge of authenticity / Natalie Zemon Davis -- History in images, history in words / Robert A. Rosenstone -- The historical film : history and memory in media / Marcia Landy -- Historiography and historiophoty / Hayden White -- Historical fiction : a body too much? / Jean-Louis Comolli -- The representability of time / Mary A. Doane -- Flashbacks in film : memory and history / Maureen Turim -- Cinema 2 : the time-image / Gilles Deleuze -- Is life beautiful? Can the Shoah be funny? : some thoughts on recent and older films / Sander L. Gilman -- Serious humor : laughter as lamentation / Lawrence Baron -- Prosthetic memory, traumatic memory : Forrest Gump (1994) / Robert Burgoyne -- Never having to say you're sorry : Rambo's rewriting of the Vietnam War / D. Desser and G. Studlar -- In the combat zone / Marilyn B. Young -- Revisiting the round table : Arthur's American dream / Susan Aronstein -- Gladiator (2000) / Monica Silveira Cyrino -- History : a retro scenario / Jean Baudrillard -- Detail and historicity in mainstream cinema : reality and indexicality from Bazin to Barthes / Philip Rosen -- The Romans in films / Roland Barthes -- A production designer's cinema : historical authenticity in popular films set in the past / Michelle Pierson -- Mirrors without memories : truth, history, and the new documentary / Linda Williams -- Memory and pedagogy in the 'Wonderful world of Disney' : beyond the politics of innocence / H.A. Giroux -- The presence of the past : popular uses of history in American life / Roy Rosenzweig and David Thelen -- Irony, nostalgia, and the postmodern / Linda Hutcheon -- The Carole Lombard in Macy's window / Charles Eckert -- Selling my heart : music and cross-promotion in Titanic / Jeff Smith -- On the prospect of writing cinema history from below / Richard Maltby.326 page(s