When Theatres of Memory was first published in 1994, it transformed the debate about what is to be considered history and questioned the role of “heritage” that lies at the heart of every Western nation’s obsession with the past. Today, in the age of Downton Abbey and Mad Men, we are once again conjuring historical fictions to make sense of our everyday lives. In this remarkable book, Samuel looks at the many different ways we use the “unofficial knowledge” of the past. Considering such varied areas as the fashion for “retrofitting,” the rise of family history, the joys of collecting old photographs, the allure of reenactment societies and televised adaptations of Dickens, Samuel transforms our understanding of the uses of history. He shows us that history is a living practice, something constantly being reassessed in the world around us.

This work offers an overview of how the past has been manipulated in art, politicized and sold to the consumer, yet takes issue with those who claim this interest in heritage is merely obsessive nostalgia. The author covers a multitude of topics, such as the Festival of Britain and conservation.

Island Stories looks at the multiplicity of myths that issue from the 4 nations that make up Great Britain. His perspective brings new meaning to the idea of history revealing how nations use their past to give meaning to their present and future.

Karin Tilmans is an historian, and academic coordinator of the Max Weber Programme at the European University Institute, Florence. Frank van Vree is an historian and professor of journalism at the University of Amsterdam. Jay M. Winter is the Charles J. Stille Professor of History at Yale. --

Famous for its lush beauty and inviting beaches, Hawai'i also boasts a rich theatrical history dating back to the mid-19th century and spanning its years as a kingdom, U.S. territory, and a state. Its warm, tropical climate and social, cultural, and ethnic diversity contributed to the variety of theatres unique to the islands--from simple, rural plantation theatres on the neighbor islands, to neighborhood movie houses in exotic styles, to an incomparable tropical moderne jewel near the beach at Waikiki. Most of these theatres are now just a memory, except for those few saved by dedicated individuals and restored for another life. This book celebrates the rich history of these theatrical venues through rare archival photographs and little-known details.

Los Angeles and the movies grew up together, and a natural extension of the picture business was the premium presentation of the product--the biggest, best, and brightest theatres imaginable. The magnificent movie palaces along Broadway in downtown Los Angeles still represent the highest concentration of vintage theatres in the world. With Hollywood and the movies practically synonymous, the theatres in the studios' neighborhood were state-of-the-art for showbiz, whether they were designed for film, vaudeville, or stage productions. From the elegant Orpheum and the exotic Grauman's Chinese to the modest El Rey, this volume celebrates the architecture and social history of Los Angeles's unique collection of historic theatres past and present. The common threads that connect them all, from the grandest movie palace to the smallest neighborhood theatre, are stories and the ghosts of audiences past waiting in the dark for the show to begin.

This unique and brilliant book is a history of human knowledge. Before the invention of printing, a trained memory was of vital importance. Based on a technique of impressing 'places' and 'images' on the mind, the ancient Greeks created an elaborate memory system which in turn was inherited by the Romans and passed into the European tradition, to be revived, in occult form, during the Renaissance. Frances Yates sheds light on Dante’s Divine Comedy, the form of the Shakespearian theatre and the history of ancient architecture; The Art of Memory is an invaluable contribution to aesthetics and psychology, and to the history of philosophy, of science and of literature.