Description
Book SynopsisHow, when, and why has the Pacific been a locus for imagining different futures by those living there as well as passing through? What does that tell us about the distinctiveness of this sea of islands? This book brings together a diverse set of approaches to how futures are being conceived in the region and have been imagined in the past.
Trade ReviewThis book both enriches and challenges the field of global history by returning—from a variety of archival and theoretical concerns—to questions about the very nature of history that have variously engaged scholars such as Greg Dening, Reinhart Koselleck, and Marshall Sahlins. The rich essays collected here will have much to say to anyone contemplating the status of the discipline of history today. If this book has a singular project, it is in an underlying search for ways in which history can be helpful. Recognizing that much of the Pacific is facing a state of existential emergency, the book opens with an appeal for history to "offer us new insights for a world in crisis" and ends by reminding the reader of Alice Te Punga Somerville’s ethical questions of "which histories do we tell, and which futures do we imagine?" Thus the book is concerned with how history is about the future, and how the project of creating desired futures for the Pacific needs the discipline of history to keep it afloat.
