An excellent intellectual study of perception of the past

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	• The Past is a Foreign Country David Lowenthal Cambridge University Press, 1999 - 489 pages average customer review:based on 4 reviews view larger image
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For anyone interested in how we look upon the past

Almost encyclopedical in his treatment of Western cultures' relations to their past, Lowenthal gives the reader a roller-coster ride, from time travel fantasies to Viking logos in Minnesota. Lowenthal is more into exploring our relation to the past than debunking myths, thus being more open to the manifold ways we use the past than in his later book "The Heritage Crusade." One problem remains: Lowenthal's idea about the foreign-ness of the past, that we today have a different way of understanding the passing of time than our medieval ancestors, could have benefitted from more elaboration. Still, this is a masterpiece.

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An excellent intellectual study of perception of the past

This book is a tough read, but a very informative look into why we view history in the way we do.

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One terrific book

This book is a unique of study on how to understand history. I found it almost impossible to put down, and my reference point for touring historical sites and watching movies and televisons shows has been foreever altered. Highly recommended for its readability and fabulous bibliography and footnotes. A must read for anyone interested in history.

The Past is our Remembrance and Imagination of it

This is an ambitious effort. It is a comprehensive effort to understand how Humanity relates to, and makes use of the Past. And a central focus is that Past which is in cultural monuments and great creations.
I admit that reading this book I felt overwhelmed and confused by the multiplicity of categories and uses, by the variety of learning and connections. I seemed to lose my inner checkposts, my way of measuring whether what was being said was true to my experience, or not.
And here I felt the strong distinction between the 'public memory' which as I understand it is by and large the subject of the work, and the kind of private individual memory through which we interpret and give meaning to our own lives.

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In this remarkably wide-ranging book Professor Lowenthal analyses the ever-changing role of the past in shaping our lives. A heritage at once nurturing and burdensome, the past allows us to make sense of the present whilst imposing powerful constraints upon the way that present develops. Some aspects of the past are celebrated, others expunged, as each generation reshapes its legacy in line with current needs. Drawing on all the arts, the humanities and the social sciences, the author uses sources as diverse as science fiction and psychoanalysis to examine how rebellion against inherited tradition has given rise to the modern cult of preservation and pervasive nostalgia. Profusely illustrated, The Past is a Foreign Country shows that although the past has ceased to be a sanction for inherited power or privilege, as a focus of personal and national identity and as a bulwark against massive and distressing change it remains as potent a force as ever in human affairs.

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