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Yesterday: A New History of Nostalgia
A sweeping reassessment of our longing for the past, from the rise of "retro" to the rhetoric of Brexit and Trump.
Nostalgia has a bad reputation. Its critics dismiss it as mere sentimentality or, worse, a dangerous yearning for an imagined age of purity. And nostalgia is routinely blamed for trivializing the past and obscuring its ugly sides. In Yesterday, Tobias Becker offers a more nuanced and sympathetic view. Surveying the successive waves of nostalgia that swept the United States and Europe after the Second World War, he shows that longing for the past is more complex and sometimes more beneficial than it seems.
The current meaning of "nostalgia" is surprisingly recent: until the 1960s, it usually just meant homesickness, in keeping with the original Greek word. Linking popular culture to postwar politics in the United States, Great Britain, and Germany, Becker explains the shift in meaning. He also responds to arguments against nostalgia, showing its critics as often shortsighted in their own ways as they defend an idea of progress no less na�ve than the wistfulness they denounce. All too often, nostalgia itself is criticized, as if its merit did not depend on which specific past one longs for.
Taking its title from one of the most popular songs of all time, and grounded in extensive research, Yesterday offers a rigorous and entertaining perspective on divisive issues in culture and politics. Whether we are revisiting, reviving, reliving, reenacting, or regressing, and whether these activities find expression in politics, music, fashion, or family history, nostalgia is inevitable. It is also powerful, not only serving to define the past but also orienting us toward the future we will create.
Nostalgia has a bad reputation. Its critics dismiss it as mere sentimentality or, worse, a dangerous yearning for an imagined age of purity. And nostalgia is routinely blamed for trivializing the past and obscuring its ugly sides. In Yesterday, Tobias Becker offers a more nuanced and sympathetic view. Surveying the successive waves of nostalgia that swept the United States and Europe after the Second World War, he shows that longing for the past is more complex and sometimes more beneficial than it seems.
The current meaning of "nostalgia" is surprisingly recent: until the 1960s, it usually just meant homesickness, in keeping with the original Greek word. Linking popular culture to postwar politics in the United States, Great Britain, and Germany, Becker explains the shift in meaning. He also responds to arguments against nostalgia, showing its critics as often shortsighted in their own ways as they defend an idea of progress no less na�ve than the wistfulness they denounce. All too often, nostalgia itself is criticized, as if its merit did not depend on which specific past one longs for.
Taking its title from one of the most popular songs of all time, and grounded in extensive research, Yesterday offers a rigorous and entertaining perspective on divisive issues in culture and politics. Whether we are revisiting, reviving, reliving, reenacting, or regressing, and whether these activities find expression in politics, music, fashion, or family history, nostalgia is inevitable. It is also powerful, not only serving to define the past but also orienting us toward the future we will create.
344 pages, Hardcover
Published December 5, 2023
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364 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
April 25, 2024
Incredibly well researched and thoughtful account of cultures relation with our past history through the lens of nostalgia. Would have liked to dig deeper into the political section as well as the discussion of popular culture. The format was very analytical which makes each chapter easy to outline and follow. I felt that in some instances the text would get too caught up in quotations and explanations of those questions that ended up inhibiting the cadence of the text.
It was incredibly insightful regardless. I’ll definitely be revisiting a few chapters and will be looking at the idea of nostalgia much different in the *future*
It was incredibly insightful regardless. I’ll definitely be revisiting a few chapters and will be looking at the idea of nostalgia much different in the *future*
April 3, 2025
Mostly a compendium of what has been written about nostalgia and exploring its definitions. It is scholarly and well-written and a serious attempt to anchor the debate as to what nostalgia serves and how it has been used. His reading of the topic is exhaustive, and for this, it rates as a fundamental read for those exploring the concept of nostalgia.
May 31, 2025
Good lord this way dry dry dry and just kept going around in circles. This is an academic book that would be a godsend if you were writing an essay but for general reading or wanting to learn about this beyond academic theory and examples of nostalgia run away.
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August 8, 2025155.92 Bec
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews