Exploring Cultural History

Abstract

Essays in Honour of Peter Burke Exploring Cultural History Imprint: Ashgate Illustrations: Includes 22 b&w illustrations Published: October 2010 Format: 234 x 156 mm Extent: 394 pages Binding: Hardback ISBN: 978-0-7546-6750-6 ISBN Short: 9780754667506 Price : £70.00 » Website price: £63.00 BL Reference: 909 LoC Control No: 2010008298 Print friendly information sheet Send to a friend Edited by Melissa Calaresu, University of Cambridge, UK, Filippo de Vivo, Birkbeck, University of London, UK and Joan-Pau Rubies, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK Over the past 30 years, cultural history has moved from the periphery to the centre of historical studies, profoundly influencing the way we look at and analyze all aspects of the past. In this volume, a distinguished group of international historians has come together to consider the rise of cultural history in general, and to highlight the particular role played in this rise by Peter Burke, the first professor of Cultural History at the University of Cambridge and one of the most prolific and influential authors in the field. Reflecting the many and varied interests of Peter Burke, the essays in this volume cover a broad range of topics, geographies and chronologies. Grouped into four sections, 'Historical Anthropology', 'Politics and Communication', 'Images' and 'Cultural Encounters', the collection explores the boundaries and possibilities of cultural history; each essay presenting an opportunity to engage with the wider issues of the methods and problems of cultural history, and with Peter Burke's contributions to each chosen theme. Taken as a whole the collection shows how cultural history has enriched the ways in which we understand the traditional fields of political, economic, literary and military history, and permeates much of what we now understand as social history. It also demonstrates how cultural history is now at the heart of the coming together of traditional disciplines, providing a meeting ground for a variety of interests and methodologies. Offering a wide international perspective, this volume complements another Ashgate publication, Popular Culture in Early Modern England, which focuses on Peter Burke's influence on the study of popular culture in English history.