Theatres of Memory: Past and Present in Contemporary Culture

by Raphael Samuel

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 nation’s 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.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Philosophy, Historical, Cultural Studies

368 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 1, 1994

Reviews

[Kristi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book fascinating. Samuel's broad conceptualization of "history" breaks down disciplinary boundaries to examine "history" more intuitively as a social process rather than a profession. In this fluid examination, popular and material culture take their place with archival research in illuminating the ways that the past is representational used in the living present, and how modes of use shift throughout time.

[Linhue]

Thx

[Ben Vos · Rating 4 out of 5]

I understood this book to be an argument that "proper" historians in academia and in print, should take more seriously the contributions to our knowledge and understanding and feelings about history common especially British history, from the creationists, archivists, family historians, collectors and other enthusiasts. The argument is most currently made in the afterword, where the supposedly neutrality and ideological purity of academic history is effectively question. Most of the book consists of a very detailed, comprehensive and fascinating (but probably partial) documentation of the growth of non-academic history since the turn of the twentieth century and focusing mostly on the post-war period. This is interesting in its own right.

[Anna Coopey · Rating 4 out of 5]

A long read, and not one entirely relevant to my field of study, but a good one. I enjoy things that dismantle historiography as a single story, and this has really made me think about the imperial nature of historical narrative (and how authors can break out of that by supplying alternative pasts).
Particularly interesting chunks were: Bill Schwarz's Foreword, obviously; the Introduction; "Heritage-Baiting"; "Politics"; and "Hybrids".

[alcapote_]

Sobre presencia del pasado en la vida de la gente corriente.