Le livre & ses secrets (review)

Abstract

rendition of history” results from this emphasis on pieces of the past such as letters, antiques, quilts, and scrapbooks that occupy space in the present (158). He explains that such “historicization of private life” was a natural accompaniment to the emphasis on home and domesticity in Europe and the United States (161). In addition, he addresses the effects of westward movement in the United States on those who remained behind in the “ruin” of New England. These last two chapters bring to mind Patrick Hutton’s recent book on Philippe Ariès in which he describes the time of tradition as existential in that “it embodies lived experience as it emerges out of the past and confirms our sense of continuity with it.”2 In the conclusion to this thoughtful and well-documented book Fritzsche holds that the new way of perceiving history that followed from the French Revolution “extended to shape social discourse and cultural practices in general. . . . History was choreographed as an endless number of departures . . . the presence of absence” (202). Thus he describes history as melancholy and nostalgic. Arguing that history is predicated upon our awareness of a lack of sufficiency and permanence, Fritzsche notes that “historical mindedness disenchants before it re-enchants,” which may be difficult to accept (217). However, historians are also products of their own traditions and circumstances and so arrive at various conclusions regarding the ambiguities implicit in the historian’s enterprise. Stranded in the Present offers an insightful treatment of the modern period and the changing concept of historical time. Filled with interesting details garnered from archival research and comprehensive notes, the book would have benefited from a bibliography as well as a more inclusive index.