A pioneer in the study of memory, Rousso interrogates the emergence in the twentieth century of the new field of contemporary history. Locating the roots of this concern in a series of catastrophic harms that threatened an earlier sense of identity and continuity with the past, Rousso takes us beyond memory and into the very nature of historical thought.
Eli ... Read moreZaretsky, New School for Social Research Rousso [is] a gifted and groundbreaking historian.
American Historical Review A provocative book! Highly recommended.
Choice The Latest Catastrophe is brilliant. It sheds light on the way we think about our own epoch in the wake of the catastrophic wars of the twentieth century and shows with elegance and sophistication how historians are constantly reworking in their practice the relationship between the present and the future.
Jan T. Gross, Princeton University In a few short generations, contemporary history has moved from a peripheral to a dominant position in historical study. Yet until now there has not been a critical analysis of the particular difficulties and demands faced by historians of the recent past and the effects these have on the history they produce. As a historian of World War II and its memory, Rousso is acutely aware that catastrophes like war and genocide can lead societies to ask historians to address the past as though it has not passed. The Latest Catastrophe is an engaging and insightful work of great importance to historians of the recent past and to all those interested in the role the past and its analysis play in our culture today.
Donald Reid, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill There is no better time than the present to be reading The Latest Catastrophe, no better historian than Rousso to introduce a concept by now so ubiquitous as to have escaped our consideration. In terms that are both philosophical and anecdotal, theoretical and emotionally charged, Rousso shows how the assumption of progress that once set the horizon for the writing of history has given way to a focus on the latest disaster. This is a profound meditation on the history of history that will find its place in the company of classic works by Marc Bloch, Tony Judt, and Paul Ricoeur.
Alice Kaplan, author of The Interpreter Show Less