Threads and Traces: True False Fictive (Paperback)

Carlo Ginzburg (author), Anne C. Tedeschi (translator)

£24.00

Paperback 336 Pages / Published: 14/09/2012

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Synopsis

Carlo Ginzburg's brilliant and timely new essay collection takes a bold stand against naive positivism and allegedly sophisticated neo-skepticism. It looks deeply into questions raised by decades of post-structuralism: What constitutes historical truth? How do we draw a boundary between truth and fiction? What is the relationship between history and memory? How do we grapple with the historical conventions that inform, in different ways, all written documents? In his answers, Ginzburg peels away layers of subsequent readings and interpretations that envelop every text to make a larger argument about history and fiction. Interwoven with compelling autobiographical references, "Threads and Traces" bears moving witness to Ginzburg's life as a European Jew, the abiding strength of his scholarship, and his deep engagement with the historian's craft.

Publisher: University of California Press
ISBN: 9780520274488
Number of pages: 336
Weight: 454 g
Dimensions: 229 x 152 x 23 mm

MEDIA REVIEWS

"No other living historian approaches the range of [Ginzburg's] erudition. Every page of Threads and Traces, his latest work to appear in English, offers an illustration of it." -- Perry Anderson London Review Of Books "Ginzburg's range is remarkable ... rich in references to and insights about diverse historical perspectives." Publishers Weekly "A collection of essays by the profoundly original, intellectually wide-ranging, Italian-Jewish historian Carlo Ginzburg ... an illuminating collection of chapters, deftly translated from the original Italian by Anne C. and John Tedeschi." -- Benjamin Ivry Forward "These essays humanely and generously explore the question of how history ought to be written." -- Jonathan Beckman The Literary Review "Surprising pace, intellectual range, and learned discourse is typical throughout the book... Artfully constructed essays." -- Raymond Grew, University of Michigan Jrnl Of Interdisciplinary History "This is a brilliant text, the product of a scholar of rare breadth and knowledge." -- Ben McDonald, University of Melbourne Melbourne Historical Jrnl