by Dylan Sailor (2008)
"Writing and Empire in Tacitus examines how Tacitus' historiographical career serves as an argument about his personal autonomy and social value under the peculiar political conditions of the early Roman empire. Following the arc of his career from Agricola through Histories to Annals, this book focuses on ways in which Tacitus' writing makes implicit claims about his relationship to Roman society and about the political consequentiality of historical writing. In a sense, this book suggests, his literary career and the sense of alienation his works project form the ideal complement to his very successful political career, which, while desirable, might nonetheless give the impression of degrading submission to emperors. The discussion combines careful attention to the historian's explicit programmatic discussion of his work with larger-scale analysis of stretches of narrative that have unspoken but significant implications for how we view the function and importance of Tacitus' work."--BOOK JACKET.
Carolyn Higbie
Using an inscription from the 1st century BC as the starting point, this text studies the ancient Greeks' perception of their past. Drawing on anthropological theory and archaeological and literary evidence, it explores how ancient Greeks reconstructed their past and utilised it in their present.
Emily D. Johnson
"In the bookshops of present-day St. Petersburg, guidebooks abound. Both modern descriptions of Russia's old imperial capital and lavish new editions of pre-Revolutionary texts sell well, primarily attracting an audience of local residents. Why do Russians read one- and two-hundred-year-old guidebooks to a city they already know well? In How St. Petersburg Learned to Study Itself, Emily Johnson traces the Russian fascination with local guides to the idea of kraevedenie." "Johnson traces the history of kraevedenie, showing how St. Petersburg-based scholars and institutions have played a central role in the evolution of the discipline. Distinguished from obvious Western equivalents such as cultural geography and the German Heimatkunde by both its dramatic history and unique social significance, kraevedenie has, for close to a hundred years, served as a key forum for expressing concepts of regional and national identity within Russian culture."--Jacket.
Etienne Copeaux
Comment justifie-t-on et légitime-t-on un bouleversement politique et social ? Pourquoi une idéologie cherche-t-elle à s’enraciner dans un passé antique et à transformer les héros médiévaux en annonciateurs du présent ? A quel rythme et sous quelles formes les idées nouvelles se transforment-elles en présupposés admis sans discussion ? Comment, enfin, la vision de l’histoire établie par le nationalisme est-elle transmise à la jeunesse ? En prenant pour exemple le cas de la république de Turquie, qui a façonné dans les années 1930 un discours officiel complexe, Etienne Copeaux tente de répondre à ces questions et analyse le processus de formation d’un imaginaire national. Aussi, cet ouvrage, au-delà des lecteurs passionnés par la Turquie et ses voisins, s’adresse à tous ceux qui se préoccupent du détournement de l’histoire par le nationalisme, et s’intéressent au rôle de l’enseignement dans la transmission des idéologies.
Steven Weitzman
"The Jews have one of the longest continuously recorded histories of any people in the world, but what do we actually know about their origins? While many think the answer to this question can be found in the Bible, others look to archaeology or genetics. Some skeptics have even sought to debunk the very idea that the Jews have a common origin. In this book, Steven Weitzman takes a learned and lively look at what we know - or think we know - about where the Jews came from, when they arose, and how they came to be. Scholars have written hundreds of books on the topic and come up with scores of explanations, theories, and historical reconstructions, but this is the first book to trace the history of the different approaches that have been applied to the question, including genealogy, linguistics, archaeology, psychology, sociology, and genetics. Weitzman shows how this quest has been fraught since its inception with religious and political agendas, how anti-Semitism cast its long shadow over generations of learning, and how recent claims about Jewish origins have been difficult to disentangle from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He does not offer neatly packaged conclusions but invites readers on an intellectual adventure, shedding new light on the assumptions and biases of those seeking answers - and the challenges that have made finding answers so elusive."--Dust jacket.