Things of the Past (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781009670890)

This Element explores the yearning for things of the past, from early modern antiquarianism to the contemporary art market. It tells a global story about scholars who, driven by this yearning, roamed the world and amassed many of its historical artefacts. Their motivation was not just pleasure or profit. They longed for a past that had been lost and strived to reconstruct world history anew. This rewriting of history unleashed heated debates, all over the world and raging for centuries. The debates concerned not only the past but also the present and the future. Many believed that, by revealing a strange and foreign past, the material remains opened a path to modernity. So, the Element investigates not only the history of historical scholarship, and its obsession with things, but also our relationship to the past as modern human beings.

Author: Kasper Risbjerg Eskildsen
ISBN-10: 1009670891
ISBN-13: 9781009670890
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Language: English
Published: 11/27/2025
Pages: 90
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 0.65lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.25d