Imagining History
A few questions are posed on the 'magic of history' in the twentieth century.
‘The past is a foreign country … they do things differently there'. But do they any more? Recently the media has buzzed with controversy about how we are no longer content to let the mystery of ancient stones or tales work alone their magic on us (or not – as Henry Ford would have it) but are taking the presentational techniques of the 1980s in hand as well. Central to most of this activity has been the word 'heritage' guaranteed to make the crustier sort of historians reach for their revolvers, but probably still, despite overuse, the best portmanteau word we have for attempts to present the past to a general audience not already convinced of the 'magic of history'.
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