Yesterday A New History of Nostalgia

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  • Engels
  • Hardcover
  • 9780674251755
  • 05 december 2023
  • 344 pagina's
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Samenvatting

Nostalgia, supposedly, is the sphere of the sentimentalist. But also, and most definitely, it is a force in the creation of the present and future and thus worth careful thought. Yesterday argues that nostalgia’s critics defend an idea of progress as naïve as the longing they denounce, while conflating nostalgia itself with historical whitewashing.



A sweeping reassessment of our longing for the past, from the rise of “retro” to the rhetoric of Brexit and Trump.

Nostalgia has a bad reputation. Its critics dismiss it as mere sentimentality or, worse, a dangerous yearning for an imagined age of purity. And nostalgia is routinely blamed for trivializing the past and obscuring its ugly sides. In Yesterday, Tobias Becker offers a more nuanced and sympathetic view. Surveying the successive waves of nostalgia that swept the United States and Europe after the Second World War, he shows that longing for the past is more complex and sometimes more beneficial than it seems.

The current meaning of “nostalgia” is surprisingly recent: until the 1960s, it usually just meant homesickness, in keeping with the original Greek word. Linking popular culture to postwar politics in the United States, Great Britain, and Germany, Becker explains the shift in meaning. He also responds to arguments against nostalgia, showing its critics as often shortsighted in their own ways as they defend an idea of progress no less naïve than the wistfulness they denounce. All too often, nostalgia itself is criticized, as if its merit did not depend on which specific past one longs for.

Taking its title from one of the most popular songs of all time, and grounded in extensive research, Yesterday offers a rigorous and entertaining perspective on divisive issues in culture and politics. Whether we are revisiting, reviving, reliving, reenacting, or regressing, and whether these activities find expression in politics, music, fashion, or family history, nostalgia is inevitable. It is also powerful, not only serving to define the past but also orienting us toward the future we will create.

Productspecificaties

Inhoud

Taal
en
Bindwijze
Hardcover
Oorspronkelijke releasedatum
05 december 2023
Aantal pagina's
344
Illustraties
Met illustraties

Betrokkenen

Hoofdauteur
Tobias Becker
Hoofduitgeverij
Harvard University Press

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Product breedte
156 mm
Product lengte
235 mm
Studieboek
Nee
Verpakking breedte
156 mm
Verpakking hoogte
31 mm
Verpakking lengte
235 mm
Verpakkingsgewicht
592 g

EAN

EAN
9780674251755

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