Remembrance of things present : the invention of the time capsule /
Time capsules offer unexpected insights into how people view their own time, place and culture, as well as their duties to future generations. Remembrance of Things Present traces the birth of this device to the Gilded Age, when growing urban volatility prompted doubts about how the period would be...
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| Format: | Book |
| Language: | English |
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Chicago :
University of Chicago Press,
[2019]
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| Summary: | Time capsules offer unexpected insights into how people view their own time, place and culture, as well as their duties to future generations. Remembrance of Things Present traces the birth of this device to the Gilded Age, when growing urban volatility prompted doubts about how the period would be remembered, or if it would be remembered at all. Yablon details how diverse Americans, from presidents and mayors to advocates for the rights of women, blacks and workers, constructed prospective memories of their present. They did so by contributing not just written testimony to time capsules but also sources that historians and archivists considered illegitimate, such as photographs, phonograph records, films and everyday artifacts. By offering a direct line to posterity, time capsules stimulated various hopes for the future. Remembrance of Things Present delves into these treasure chests to unearth those forgotten futures. |
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| Physical Description: | 407 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| ISBN: | 9780226574134 022657413X |