Historical Authenticity

Authenticity has become a key concept in the culture of history and memory in the 21st century. This open access book explores the multifaceted nature of ‘historical authenticity’ and its uses in various academic, museum, and historical-cultural contexts. Through 70 alphabetically-arranged articles, Historical Authenticity explains the problems and power of ‘historical authenticity’ as well as the fascination for authentic objects, authentic places and authentic voices of the past. The book shines a light on how today’s attitudes to the past are characterised by an intense striving for historical authenticity - a phenomenon which began to assume new potency in the last third of the 20th century. It considers how this manifests itself in practical terms, like in the value attached to ‘authentic objects’ in museums, collections and archives, or to ‘authentic places’ – be they historic buildings, urban architectural ensembles or memorial sites designated as direct embodiments of history. The volume also reflects on how this desire for historical authenticity and past ‘reality’ goes hand in hand with a longing to experience history ‘first-hand’, as evidenced in the degree of public attention accorded to surviving witnesses of historic events, the frequent screenings of historical documentaries and feature films, and the popularity of historical re-enactments. ‘Historical Authenticity’ convincingly makes the case that this is all ultimately bound up with the human longing for things regarded as ‘genuine’, and the impulse to reconstruct and preserve what is ‘true’ and ‘original’. The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by the Leibniz Research Alliance.