Alison Landsberg skillfully penetrates one of the most interesting yet elusive questions about popular representations of the past. What kinds of knowledge of the past do they offer? In elegant and precise analyses of selected texts, she demonstrates how they engage affect and emotion through experiential modes of communication. Contrary to many assumptions about such forms, Landsberg brilliantly argues that ... Read morethese reenactments have the potential to provoke self-conscious historical thinking much sought after by more conventional historical modes of communication.
Ann Gray, emerita professor of cultural studies, University of Lincoln The book is carefully structured, sensitively expressed, and the analysis of thevarious media a contribution to thinking differently about cinematic uses ofpast. Critical Inquiry Show Less