How the Past was Used: Historical cultures, c. 750-2000 (Proceedings of the British Academy)

It might be a matter of learning lessons from experience, or about the legitimacy of a cause or regime, or the reputation of an individual. But given also that evidence of past societies was fragmentary, fragile, and fraught with difficulties for those who sought to make sense of it, imaginative leaps and creativity necessarily came into the equation. Rival versions and interpretations reflected, but also helped to create and sustain, divergent communities and world views. This book explores how societies put the past to use and how, in the process, they represented it: in short, their historical culture. But then notions of truth proved malleable, even within one society, culture, or period.Concerned with what engagements with the past can reveal about the wider intellectual and cultural frameworks they took place within, this book is of relevance to anyone interested in how societies, communities, and individuals have acted on their historical consciousness.. With so much at stake, manipulations, distortions, and myths proliferated. It brings together anthropologists, historians, and literary scholars to address the means by which societies, groups, and individuals have engaged with the past and express

About the AuthorPeter Lambert and Bjorn Weiler are both of Aberystwyth University.

Peter Lambert and Bjorn Weiler are both of Aberystwyth University.