British Academy publishes ‘How the Past Was Used: Historical Cultures c.750-2000’

The British Academy has published a new book exploring how human societies have used, constructed and interpreted their pasts.

How the Past Was Used: Historical Cultures c.750-2000, edited by Dr Peter Lambert and Professor Björnn Weiler, brings together anthropologists, historians and literary scholars to address how societies, communities and individuals have acted on their historical consciousness.

Ranging chronologically from the Middle Ages to the 21^st century, the book addresses subjects including memory, politics and the past in the Middle Byzantine Period, the poetry of history in early modern India, and legend and historical experience in fifteenth-century Ottoman narratives of the past.

Dr Peter Lambert MA (Cantab), PhD (Sussex) is the Director of the Centre of Research in Historiography and Historical Cultures at Aberystwyth University.

Professor Björnn Weiler MA (St. Andrews) PhD (St. Andrews), also of Aberystwyth, has held visiting fellowships at Bergen, Cambridge, Freiburg i. Br., and Harvard, and is a fellow of the Royal Historical Society.

How the Past Was Used: Historical Cultures c.750-2000 is part of the Proceedings of the British Academy series and is marketed and distributed by Oxford University Press.