The Persistence of History (Cinema, Television and the Modern Event)

All those who are concerned with the current status of History should welcome The Persistence of History by Vivian Sobchack, be it for her excellent choice of essays, be it for the opportune moment for a book about such a subject. As she explains in the “Introduction”, all the essays “deal with transformations in the sense and representation of history which emerged at the beginning of the twentieth century, correlative with the birth of cinema, modernity, and ‘modernism’,” especially in our current postmodern moment. All the essays in the book are concerned in some way with how film and television relate to those transformations history is experiencing.All those who are concerned with the current status of History should welcome The Persistence of History by Vivian Sobchack, be it for her excellent choice of essays, be it for the opportune moment for a book about such a subject. As she explains in the “Introduction”, all the essays “deal with transformations in the sense and representation of history which emerged at the beginning of the twentieth century, correlative with the birth of cinema, modernity, and ‘modernism’,” especially in our current postmodern moment. All the essays in the book are concerned in some way with how film and television relate to those transformations history is experiencing