History on Film/Film on History

History on Film: Film on History

A Companion to the Historical Film

Blackwell

Visions of the Past

Visions of The Past

Revisioning History

Revisioning History

Romantic Revolutionary

Romantic Revolutionary

Crusade of The Left

Crusade of The Left

Click Book Covers for Descriptions

Most Recent Book

“A terrific read and a wonderfully multi-layered account of the intellectual and personal journey of a historian. Robert Rosenstone weaves together a lively story of doing research with reflections on critical turning points in the evolution of his thought and meditations on how written narrative and visual images shape our understanding of the past. Adventures of a Postmodern Historian manages to be both profound and playful, intimate and also panoramic, serious and at times hilarious. As a story-teller always searching for new ways of capturing the past, Rosenstone writes for historians, for students and readers of history, and for those who live in a moment of time, which is all of us.”
----Alice Wexler, author of Mapping Fate, Emma Goldman, The Woman Who Walked into the Sea

“Last week I read your Adventures of a Postmodern Historian . . . . I want to congratulate you on it most warmly: it’s a truly wonderful book and I love it! And then I have in mind not only the book itself and the story of your life you tell in it, but no less what being a historian has meant to you. This aspect of your book is already clear from its title. For the title suggests that doing history can be an ‘adventure’ and that the historian may ‘live’ the past when ‘writing’ it.”
----Frank Ankersmit, University of Groningen

“Just what is this thing called history? If you have ever wanted to know then this book is essential reading. Robert A. Rosenstone - novelist and experimental historian - explains what it is in this fascinating personal account of his travels through time. His takes on life and philosophy offers a brilliantly illuminating insight into how we all voyage through time and places. As he says ‘History does not exist until it is created’. This is a book that should be read if you want to understand your journey through time.”
----Alun Munslow, UK Editor of Rethinking History

“This is an entertaining and instructive account of how one historian assesses his own intellectual development within the wider cultural context of his time. Robert Rosenstone describes how his experiences in Franco's Spain, Soviet Russia, Japan, and Hollywood affected his views on historians' treatment of the past, and his engaging style should help clarify for readers the fundamental historiographical developments of the last half-century.”
----Beverley Southgate, University of Hertfordshire

“Rosenstone is a brilliant writer. His conversational tone is captivating, conjuring up for instance, the image of a never-ending dinner in Leningrad in which virtually no food (but plenty of vodka) was served, or a confrontation, as a visiting professor, with a Japanese Program Head over his refusal to give his students a final exam. Intellectually and geographically far-reaching, this book is in every sense an adventure.”
----Alison Landsberg, George Mason University

“Hundreds of historians have written memoirs. I promise only that you have not read one as lively or revealing as Robert Rosenstone's. Much has changed since the 1960s, when Rosenstone happened upon history. What remains is his honesty, irreverence, passion, cosmopolitanism, and wit, all of which makes him a great writer and ideal guide to the discipline and our time.”
----James Goodman, Rutgers University

“In the course of his career, Robert A. Rosenstone has worked as one of the most brilliantly innovative historians in the United States . . . His latest book Adventures of a Postmodern Historian is a beautifully written memoir that succeeds in being a profound meditation on the life of a historian as well as the nature of historical research and writing. It is also a highly entertaining and moving account of his unique and interesting career.”
----Minsoo Kang, University of Missouri


Robert Rosenstone was among the first ‘postmodern’ historians, and remains one of the most renowned. In this honest, revealing and often funny memoir, he shows us how he got there and why.

Adventures of a Postmodern Historian chronicles Rosenstone’s research journeys over half a century. Beginning in the 1960s, his offbeat trajectory took him on adventures through the police states of Franco Spain and the Soviet Union, to the Shinto shrines and Zen temples of Japan and ultimately to Hollywood. Alongside his own memoirs, Rosenstone reflects upon developments and changes within the realm of professional history, which in turn reflect the social, cultural, and intellectual shifts of the late 20th century. A pioneer of experimental and creative history, he suggests how the experience of the historian can inflect the written history, and provides a defence of innovation in historical writing that is both intellectually rigorous and entertaining. In doing so he offers a window into the state of history today – and points to exciting new ways of writing the past.

Do People Look Up at the Moon Anymore?

Do People Look Up at the Moon Anymore?

Red Star, Crescent Moon

Red Star, Crescent Moon

King of Odessa

King of Odessa

The Man Who Swam Into History

The Man Who Swam Into History

Mirror in The Shrine

Mirror in The Shrine