Reviews

The Future of the Past by Alexander Stille

bibliothecarivs's review against another edition

4.0

Stille takes the reader to eleven locations/cultures and explains how the past (oral/written history, monuments, etc.) is perceived, evaluated, and managed in the information age. The topics he chooses to cover are interesting and he explores them with great detail, covering several sides of every issue. Stille's journalistic writing style is great, but it can take getting used to- it sometimes feels like you are reading a book-length Time magazine article. Some of the information is now dated (book published in 2002) but that makes you actually want to know what these people/cultures are up to today. I recommend this book to anyone interested in history, anthropology, technology, or the environment.