Description
Book SynopsisAlthough not a professional historian, the author raises several issues pertinent to the state of history today.Qualifying the "non-historian" as an "able" interventionist in historical studies, the author explores the relationship between history and theory within the current epistemological configurations and re-figurations.
Trade Review “[A] fascinating account of Indian historical consciousness and of how India relates to its past.” • From the Foreword
“Enhanced with an extensive bibliography and a comprehensive index, ‘A Lover's Quarrel With The Past’ is informed, informative, thoughtful and thought provoking, making it a highly recommended study for academicians and non-professional general readers with an interest in history and the representation of history.” • Midwest Book Review
“Ghosh has written an original, intriguing, even passionate book and, for the most part it is written in an appealing style, with interesting images and quirky turns of phrase… Ghosh has sent us news from the frontline of the memory wars in India. No end to this argument is yet in sight. His book is a call for tolerance and sanity and doing history responsibly.” • Newsletter of the International Institute for Asian Studies
“Ranjan Ghosh has written an original and important work…The quality of the thinking and argument is very high…Ghosh has managed to construct the book in a very clever way so as to bring together an exact and engaging meditation on current state of the philosophy and theory of history and an important historiographical examination of how India relates to its past.” • Ethan Kleinberg, Wesleyan University
“This is an outstanding and remarkable book, beautifully written and meticulously structured. The main virtue of the text is that it operates on several levels, allowing for a wide readership without sacrificing profundity and originality… [I]t integrates theoretical acumen with a profound meditation on love and the nature of emotional and affective relations. It is distinguished from anything else in its field but is not negatively polemical.” • Claire Colebrook, Penn State University
Table of Contents Acknowledgements
Foreword: Imagination and Fact: A Lover’s Quarrel
Frank Ankersmit
The Quarrel Begins…
Chapter 1. Romancing the Past: Presence and Intangibilities of History
Chapter 2. Reality of Representation, Reality behind Representation: History and Memory
Chapter 3. Whose Mandir? Whose Masjid? The Historian’s Ethics and the Ethics of Historical Reading
Afterword: The Quarrel Continues...
Mark Bevir and Ranjan Ghosh
Bibliography
Notes on contributors
Index
