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St Mary’s Historians Publish New Book

Two History academics at St Mary’s University, Twickenham have published a new book about the cultural and political relevance of historical practices.

Two History academics at St Mary’s University, Twickenham have published a new book about the cultural and political relevance of historical practices.

History BA lecturers Claire Norton and Mark Donnelly’s Liberating Histories is the second book they have co-written after Doing History (2011).

The book, which has been published by Routledge, rejects the idea that specifically historical readings of the past are necessary or compelled by the force of events themselves, with the authors challenging the authority and constraints of academic history.

Liberating Histories is more concerned with how artists, filmmakers, journalists, curators, lawyers and activists make use of past-talk in their work for social justice.

In a review, Senior Research Fellow at the University of Turku, Finland Kalle Pihlainen called the book “a tribute to uses of the imagination in repurposing the past.”

Claire said of the book, “We explore some of the many different ways in which past-talk contributes to debates about the types of society people want to live in. This isn’t what historians usually write about but we want to show that the issues involved are important.”

To find out more about, and to purchase, Liberating Histories visit the Routledge website.

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