Consuming History examines how history works in contemporary popular culture. Analysing a wide range of cultural entities from computer games to daytime television, it investigates the ways in which society consumes history and how a reading of this consumption can help us understand popular culture and issues of representation.

In this second edition, Jerome de Groot probes how museums have responded to the heritage debate and how new technologies from online game-playing to internet genealogy have brought about a shift in access to history, discussing the often conflicted relationship between 'public' and academic history and raising important questions about the theory and practice of history as a discipline. Fully revised throughout with up-to-date examples from sources such as Wolf Hall, Game of Thrones and 12 Years a Slave, this edition also includes new sections on the historical novel, gaming, social media and genealogy. It considers new, ground-breaking texts and media such as YouTube in addition to entities and practices, such as re-enactment, that have been underrepresented in historical discussion thus far.

Engaging with a broad spectrum of source material and comparing the experiences of the UK, the USA, France and Germany as well as exploring more global trends, Consuming History offers an essential path through the debates for readers interested in history, cultural studies and the media.

About the Author

Jerome de Groot teaches at the University of Manchester. He is the author of Remaking History (2015), The Historical Novel (2009), Royalist Identities (2004), and numerous articles on popular history, manuscript culture and the English civil war.

Reviews

"De Groot provides all students and practitioners of history with a fascinating overview of the diverse ways in which history is used by societies, and a nuanced understanding of both the rewards and challenges involved with representing the past to the public... The author's intellectual engagement with these topics is untouched by other publications."

Michael F. Dove, University of Western Ontario, Canada

"This is the only book that seriously addresses the relationship between history and popular culture in Britain today, and does so in an engaging, thoughtful and accessible way... the range of coverage in Consuming History is excellent."

Catherine Fletcher, University of Sheffield, UK

"This empirically rich, well-documented book surveys an impressively wide range of topics that the author divides into six often overlapping categories. De Groot (Univ. of Manchester, UK) concentrates heavily on the British experience and, in this second edition of a book first published in 2009, offers new topics, updated examples, and revised analyses. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above."

D. L. LeMahieu, Lake Forest College, USA, CHOICE Reviews

"De Groot provides all students and practitioners of history with a fascinating overview of the diverse ways in which history is used by societies, and a nuanced understanding of both the rewards and challenges involved with representing the past to the public... The author's intellectual engagement with these topics is untouched by other publications."

Michael F. Dove, University of Western Ontario, Canada

"This is the only book that seriously addresses the relationship between history and popular culture in Britain today, and does so in an engaging, thoughtful and accessible way... the range of coverage in Consuming History is excellent."

Catherine Fletcher, University of Sheffield, UK

"This empirically rich, well-documented book surveys an impressively wide range of topics that the author divides into six often overlapping categories. De Groot (Univ. of Manchester, UK) concentrates heavily on the British experience and, in this second edition of a book first published in 2009, offers new topics, updated examples, and revised analyses. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above."

D. L. LeMahieu, Lake Forest College, USA, CHOICE Reviews

Book Information
ISBN 9781138905320
Author Jerome de Groot
Format Paperback
Page Count 316
Imprint Routledge
Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd
Weight(grams) 400g