{"product_id":"the-birth-of-the-past-9781421422787","title":"The Birth of the Past","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eHow we learned to distinguish past from present and see the world historically.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOutstanding Academic Title, \u003ci\u003eChoice\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHow did people learn to distinguish between past and present? How did they come to see the past as existing in its own distinctive context? In \u003ci\u003eThe Birth of the Past\u003c\/i\u003e, Zachary Sayre Schiffman explores these questions in his sweeping survey of historical thinking in the Western world. Today we automatically distinguish between past and present, labeling things that appear out of place as \"anachronisms.\" Schiffman shows how this tendency did not always exist and how the past as such was born of a perceived difference between past and present. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSchiffman takes readers on a grand tour of historical thinking from antiquity to modernity. He shows how ancient historians could not distinguish between past and present because they conceived of multiple pasts. Christian theologians coalesced these multiple pasts into a single temporal space where past merged with present and future. Renaissance humanists began to disentangle these temporal states in their desire to resurrect classical culture, creating a \"living past.\" French enlighteners killed off this living past when they engendered a form of social scientific thinking that measured the relations between historical entities, thus sustaining the distance between past and present and relegating each culture to its own distinctive context.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFeaturing a foreword by the eminent historian Anthony Grafton, this fascinating book draws upon a diverse range of sources--ancient histories, medieval theology, Renaissance art, literature, legal thought, and early modern mathematics and social science--to uncover the meaning of the past and its relationship to the present.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/sureshotbooks-com.myshopify.com\/search?type=product%2Carticle%2Cpage\u0026amp;q=AUTH-16145136\"\u003eZachary S. Schiffman\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Johns Hopkins University Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 01\/24\/2017\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 336\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.05lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.90h x 5.90w x 1.10d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781421422787\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN10:\u003c\/b\u003e 1421422786\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBISAC Categories:\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e- \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/sureshotbooks-com.myshopify.com\/search?type=product%2Carticle%2Cpage\u0026amp;q=CAT-HIS\"\u003eHistory\u003c\/a\u003e | \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/sureshotbooks-com.myshopify.com\/search?type=product%2Carticle%2Cpage\u0026amp;q=BISAC-HIS016000\"\u003eHistoriography\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cbr\u003e- \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/sureshotbooks-com.myshopify.com\/search?type=product%2Carticle%2Cpage\u0026amp;q=CAT-HIS\"\u003eHistory\u003c\/a\u003e | \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/sureshotbooks-com.myshopify.com\/search?type=product%2Carticle%2Cpage\u0026amp;q=BISAC-HIS037020\"\u003eEurope | Renaissance\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cbr\u003e- \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/sureshotbooks-com.myshopify.com\/search?type=product%2Carticle%2Cpage\u0026amp;q=CAT-PHI\"\u003ePhilosophy\u003c\/a\u003e | \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/sureshotbooks-com.myshopify.com\/search?type=product%2Carticle%2Cpage\u0026amp;q=BISAC-PHI016000\"\u003eHistory \u0026amp; Surveys | Modern\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eZachary Sayre Schiffman \u003c\/b\u003eis the Bernard Brommel Distinguished Research Professor Emeritus in the Department of History at Northeastern Illinois University. He is the author of \u003ci\u003eOn the Threshold of Modernity: Relativism in the French Renaissance\u003c\/i\u003e, the coauthor of \u003ci\u003eInformation Ages: Literacy, Numeracy, and the Computer Revolution\u003c\/i\u003e, and the editor of \u003ci\u003eHumanism and the Renaissance.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Johns Hopkins University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44692950155501,"sku":"9781421422787","price":60.08,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0550\/8097\/6621\/products\/img_3ac705fc-9eca-4c39-b2a3-d7d571075b4e.jpg?v=1703745522","url":"https:\/\/sureshotbooks.com\/products\/the-birth-of-the-past-9781421422787","provider":"SureShot Books Publishing LLC","version":"1.0","type":"link"}