Bringing together essays on uses of history as both a practical activity and an approach to thinking about the present, this collection explores ways in which people have reckoned with history in pasts both distant and near.

Reckoning with History begins by examining uses of the past in early modern Britain, a period in which print, religious reformation, and political conflict transformed historical culture. Later essays offer insights into personal, popular, professional, and sometimes deeply political uses of the past in other times and places, helping to contextualize our own moments in historical writing and to link the early and post-modern periods. Throughout, contributors respond to the writings of Daniel Woolf, whose scholarship illuminates the history of the historical discipline and the social circulation of the past.

Covering subjects such as early archival practices, memories of historic plagues, and the type of commemorations needed to revitalize liberal democracies, Reckoning with History contextualizes the uses of the past today.

K.J. Kesselring is professor of history at Dalhousie University.

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Matthew Neufeld is associate professor of history at the University of Saskatchewan.

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“Reckoning with History will be coveted by the many students and scholars who have been inspired by Professor Woolf's work. This book goes beyond the festschrift tradition by offering a collection of essays that engage with and develop the main theme of Woolf’s métier as historian – to wit, the many ‘uses of the past’ made by people (not just professional historians) in various different contexts.” Brian Cowan, McGill University