Description:
Hayden White borrows the title for The Practical Past from philosopher Michael Oakeshott, who used the term to describe the accessible material and literary-artistic artifacts that individuals and institutions draw on for guidance in quotidian affairs. The Practical Past, then, forms both a summa of White's work to be drawn upon and a new direction in his thinking about the writing of history.
Review Quotes: The Practical Past is a magisterial achievement and a "must-read" for historians, critical theorists, students of rhetoric and literature, and interested citizens inside and outside the human sciences."--Daniel O'Hara, author of Narrating Demons, Transformative Texts: Rereading Genius in Mid-Century Modern Fictional Memoir and The Art of Reading as a Way of Life: On Nietzsche's Truth (Northwestern, 2009).