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The Past Is a Foreign Country – Revisited
The past remains essential – and inescapable. A quarter-century after the publication of his classic account of man's attitudes to his past, David Lowenthal revisits how we celebrate, expunge, contest and domesticate the past to serve present needs. He shows how nostalgia and heritage now pervade every facet of public and popular culture. History embraces nature and the cosmos as well as humanity. The past is seen and touched and tasted and smelt as well as heard and read about. Empathy, re-enactment, memory and commemoration overwhelm traditional history. A unified past once certified by experts and reliant on written texts has become a fragmented, contested history forged by us all. New insights into history and memory, bias and objectivity, artefacts and monuments, identity and authenticity, and remorse and contrition, make this book once again the essential guide to the past that we inherit, reshape and bequeath to the future.
680 pages, Hardcover
First published October 31, 2013
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October 21, 2024A phenomenology of our relation with the past
This book offers an almost exhaustive description of what relationships one can have with history, and what the motivations and the consequences of these relationships are. Lowenthal considers all possible things: from the yearning for the past (melancholy/nostalgia) to the complete ignoring of it (presentism); from a cyclic look at history, to the (modern) experience that the past is very different from the present ('a foreign country'); from the ruthless distancing from the past (the ravages of modernism), to the obsessive conservation urge of our time. Lowenthal illustrates all this with a enormous amount of evidence and illustrations, mostly drawn from the Anglo-European culture, but also more broadly. The abundance is such that the reading sometimes becomes a bit tedious, partly because of regular repetition.
Lowenthal also reflects on the fact that how we deal with the past is not innocent at alle: every time we look at the past (even our own personal history), we change that past, we color it with our own new experiences, our context, etc. Again plenty of evidence and illustration here that shows how memory (personal or collective) adjusts the past, and how even a subtle reconstruction changes essential aspects of that past.
Fortunately, the author does not fall into easy relativism: if the past cannot be known "as it really was" (Ranke), we may perhaps fantasize about it and do whatever we want with it, or even just ignore it. No, Lowenthal argues quite clearly that with critical sense, transparency (sources), respect and empathy, an acceptable reconstruction of the past is possible, but always as a temporary state of affairs, always open to discussion and amendment.
Because we can not ignore the past - that's the theme of this book -, it is in us and around us, and ignoring it is stashing an essential part of your existence. "The past is integral to our being. We learn to live courageously with its totality, as aware of and alert to its defects and malfunctions as to its glories and virtues, history’s farces along with its tragedies. ‘There is no document of civilization’, Walter Benjamin reminds us, ‘which is not at the same time a document of barbarism’. Like Erasmus we need to embrace the vile along with the valiant, the evil with the eminent, the sordid and sad as well as the splendid. For the whole of the past is our legacy. "(p 609)
I can not make a comparison between this thoroughly revised edition and the original 1985, but I suspect it would be an interesting object of study in itself to explore the changes and additions in Lowenthal's view.
So this is not an introduction to the research of history, but rather an indispensable, necessary study that explains how we as humans relate to the past. In that sense it is mandatory prior reading for all those that want to begin with the scientific study of history. Impressive!
This book offers an almost exhaustive description of what relationships one can have with history, and what the motivations and the consequences of these relationships are. Lowenthal considers all possible things: from the yearning for the past (melancholy/nostalgia) to the complete ignoring of it (presentism); from a cyclic look at history, to the (modern) experience that the past is very different from the present ('a foreign country'); from the ruthless distancing from the past (the ravages of modernism), to the obsessive conservation urge of our time. Lowenthal illustrates all this with a enormous amount of evidence and illustrations, mostly drawn from the Anglo-European culture, but also more broadly. The abundance is such that the reading sometimes becomes a bit tedious, partly because of regular repetition.
Lowenthal also reflects on the fact that how we deal with the past is not innocent at alle: every time we look at the past (even our own personal history), we change that past, we color it with our own new experiences, our context, etc. Again plenty of evidence and illustration here that shows how memory (personal or collective) adjusts the past, and how even a subtle reconstruction changes essential aspects of that past.
Fortunately, the author does not fall into easy relativism: if the past cannot be known "as it really was" (Ranke), we may perhaps fantasize about it and do whatever we want with it, or even just ignore it. No, Lowenthal argues quite clearly that with critical sense, transparency (sources), respect and empathy, an acceptable reconstruction of the past is possible, but always as a temporary state of affairs, always open to discussion and amendment.
Because we can not ignore the past - that's the theme of this book -, it is in us and around us, and ignoring it is stashing an essential part of your existence. "The past is integral to our being. We learn to live courageously with its totality, as aware of and alert to its defects and malfunctions as to its glories and virtues, history’s farces along with its tragedies. ‘There is no document of civilization’, Walter Benjamin reminds us, ‘which is not at the same time a document of barbarism’. Like Erasmus we need to embrace the vile along with the valiant, the evil with the eminent, the sordid and sad as well as the splendid. For the whole of the past is our legacy. "(p 609)
I can not make a comparison between this thoroughly revised edition and the original 1985, but I suspect it would be an interesting object of study in itself to explore the changes and additions in Lowenthal's view.
So this is not an introduction to the research of history, but rather an indispensable, necessary study that explains how we as humans relate to the past. In that sense it is mandatory prior reading for all those that want to begin with the scientific study of history. Impressive!
January 9, 2020
Wow! I started with totally false expectations on this book, I thought it would be yet another introduction on historical research. Not so. Instead this book offers an almost exhaustive description of what relationships you can have with history. The author (1923-2018) was an American historian and geographer, one of the fathers of heritage studies. And in this book, that shows: it's a practical, although quite heavy, guide to historical studies with a really practical take: almost no theory, epistemology or methodology here, but an endless summing up of how we relate to the past. For a more extended review, see my History-account on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/edit....
February 4, 2017
While an important and foundational work for the study of historical memory back in 1985, this "Revisited" edition seems to fail to update on many levels. One major failure is its lack of perspectives, still sitting back in 1980s white man view of historical study. Where it does succeed, the points are buried under pompous levels of writing that require excavation to understand. Lowenthal often begins to make great points throughout, but leaves the reader wondering, and ultimately doing much of the intellectual heavy-lifting on their own. Where the text isn't sparsely scattered through mountains of quotes, especially in the poorly handled "Time-Traveling" chapter, it is often filled with bold claims that require unprovided sources. This is a remarkable thing when one realizes how many references there are, yet some of the bolder claims about psychology, neuroscience, and biology are left source-less, and where there are sources, they are nearly outdated, looking back to the early 2000s. This is a mark of how long this new edition took to put together, which while understandable, leaves a 2015 book on the subject wanting more. Overall, I REALLY want to like this book, but just can't. I find it's highest value as a foundational 1985 text, something to be appreciated historiographically, rather than a modern look at historical memory.
May 17, 2017
An ambitious examination of how we relate to the past through memory and history to create nostalgia and heritage. However, I was left uncertain if this volume is an updated version of Lowenthal's earlier text, or if this is a separate work revisiting the topics previously explored. Considering an impressive variety of cultural productions and phenomenon, this is a weighty synthesis that could have perhaps been shortened.
May 4, 2021
It’s all over the place
February 16, 2026
David Lowenthal menyajikan bedah mendalam mengenai bagaimana masa lalu telah bergeser dari sebuah kronik yang pasti menjadi "negeri asing" yang terus-menerus kita domestikasi agar sesuai dengan selera masa kini. Paradoks utamanya terletak pada ambivalensi kita, yang mana kita mendambakan keaslian masa lalu yang eksotis, namun secara tidak sadar kita merombaknya menggunakan perspektif dan teknologi modern hingga ia kehilangan sifat aslinya.
Lowenthal menunjukkan bahwa kesadaran akan hal-hal yang telah berlalu bukan sekadar temuan fakta, melainkan hasil dari perasaan kita terhadap dampak waktu, yang membuat kita menjadi "penyewa sementara" atas harapan-harapan kuno yang diwariskan lintas generasi.
Lebih jauh lagi, karya Lowenthal ini menyoroti bahwa mengetahui masa lalu berarti peduli, dan peduli berarti menggunakannya, yang pada akhirnya akan mentransformasi masa lalu tersebut. Kita tidak sekadar menemukan sejarah, melainkan aktif "memfabrikasi" warisan (heritage) untuk memperkuat identitas, harga diri, dan kepentingan kelompok kita saat ini.
Proses "perbaikan" masa lalu ini, baik melalui nostalgia yang romantis maupun penghapusan memori yang traumatis, dianggap sebagai sesuatu yang tak terelakkan. Menyadari bahwa kita terus merombak warisan tersebut sebenarnya bersifat membebaskan, karena memungkinkan masyarakat untuk mencapai pemahaman masa lalu yang lebih realistis dan menghargai diri sendiri tanpa terjebak pada mistik warisan yang kaku.
Lowenthal memperingatkan bahwa di era informasi saat ini, masa lalu menjadi sangat omnipresen (ada di mana-mana) namun sekaligus mengalami pengosongan substansi karena sering kali dianggap sepele atau sekadar komoditas. Garis antara fakta sejarah dan fiksi menjadi sangat kabur, di mana narasi yang meyakinkan secara emosional sering kali dianggap lebih valid daripada bukti yang disepakati secara konsensus.
Tantangan terbesar kita bukan lagi sekadar mengingat, melainkan memikul tanggung jawab kolektif atas keseluruhan warisan sejarah tersebut, baik kejayaannya maupun kengeriannya, dengan toleransi yang terinformasi demi meningkatkan kualitas hidup di masa sekarang dan membuka jalan bagi masa depan.
Lowenthal menunjukkan bahwa kesadaran akan hal-hal yang telah berlalu bukan sekadar temuan fakta, melainkan hasil dari perasaan kita terhadap dampak waktu, yang membuat kita menjadi "penyewa sementara" atas harapan-harapan kuno yang diwariskan lintas generasi.
Lebih jauh lagi, karya Lowenthal ini menyoroti bahwa mengetahui masa lalu berarti peduli, dan peduli berarti menggunakannya, yang pada akhirnya akan mentransformasi masa lalu tersebut. Kita tidak sekadar menemukan sejarah, melainkan aktif "memfabrikasi" warisan (heritage) untuk memperkuat identitas, harga diri, dan kepentingan kelompok kita saat ini.
Proses "perbaikan" masa lalu ini, baik melalui nostalgia yang romantis maupun penghapusan memori yang traumatis, dianggap sebagai sesuatu yang tak terelakkan. Menyadari bahwa kita terus merombak warisan tersebut sebenarnya bersifat membebaskan, karena memungkinkan masyarakat untuk mencapai pemahaman masa lalu yang lebih realistis dan menghargai diri sendiri tanpa terjebak pada mistik warisan yang kaku.
Lowenthal memperingatkan bahwa di era informasi saat ini, masa lalu menjadi sangat omnipresen (ada di mana-mana) namun sekaligus mengalami pengosongan substansi karena sering kali dianggap sepele atau sekadar komoditas. Garis antara fakta sejarah dan fiksi menjadi sangat kabur, di mana narasi yang meyakinkan secara emosional sering kali dianggap lebih valid daripada bukti yang disepakati secara konsensus.
Tantangan terbesar kita bukan lagi sekadar mengingat, melainkan memikul tanggung jawab kolektif atas keseluruhan warisan sejarah tersebut, baik kejayaannya maupun kengeriannya, dengan toleransi yang terinformasi demi meningkatkan kualitas hidup di masa sekarang dan membuka jalan bagi masa depan.
February 27, 2021
What a fantastic book!
December 9, 2025
Massive and wide ranging, it’s a bit hard to wrap your arms around but plenty of good stuff to chew on about cultural heritage.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews