The dustbin of history / Greil Marcus.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Marcus, Greil

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Popular culture--United States--History--20th century.

Popular culture.

United States.

History.

Arts, American--20th century.

Arts, American.

Popular culture--History--20th century.

Arts, Modern--20th century.

Arts, Modern.

History, Modern--20th century.

History, Modern.

Physical Description:

274 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 1995.

Summary:

It is the history in the riff, in the movie or novel or photograph, in the actor's pose or critic's posturing - in short, the history is cultural happenstance - that Marcus reveals here, exposing along the way the distortions and denials that keep us oblivious if not immune to its lessons. Whether writing about the Beat Generation or Umberto Eco, Picasso's Guernica or the massacre in Tiananmen Square, The Manchurian Candidate or John Wayne's acting, Eric Ambler's antifascist thrillers or Camille Paglia, Marcus uncovers the histories embedded in our cultural moments and acts, and shows how, through our reading of the truths our culture tells and those it twists and conceals, we situate ourselves in that history and in the world. Again and again Marcus skewers the widespread assumption that history exists only in the past, that it is behind us, relegated to the dustbin. Here we see instead that history is very much with us, being made and unmade every day, and unless we recognize it our future will be as cramped and impoverished as our present sense of the past.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [253]-259) and index.

ISBN:

0674218574

OCLC:

32396528