The Future of the Past
ALEXANDER STILLE
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Book Description |
An engrossing look at the cultural consequences of technological change and globalization
Space radar, infrared photography, carbon dating, DNA analysis, microfilm, digital data bases-we have better technology than ever for studying and preserving the past. And yet the by-products of technology threaten to destroy--in one or two generations--monuments, works of art, and ways of life that have survived thousands of years of hardship and war. This paradox is central to our age. We use the Internet to access and assess infinite amounts of information--but understand less and less of its historical context. Globalization may eventually benefit countries around the world; it will also, almost certainly, lead to the disappearance of hundreds of regional dialects, languages, and whole societies.
In The Future of the Past, Alexander Stille takes us on a tour of the past as it exists today and weighs its prospects for tomorrow, from China to Somalia to Washington, D.C. Through incisive portraits of their protagonists, he describes high-tech struggles to save the Great Sphinx and the Ganges; efforts to preserve Latin within the Vatican; the digital glut inside the National Archives, which may have lost more information in the information age than ever before; an oral culture threatened by a "new" technology: writing itself. Wherever it takes him, Stille explores not just the past, but our ideas about the past, how they are changing--and how they will have to change if our past is to have a future.
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Alexander Stille Award Stats |
Major Prize* Nominations |
1 |
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Unique Books Nominated for a Major Prize* |
1 |
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Pulitzer Prize Wins |
0 |
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Pulitzer Prize Nominations |
0 |
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National Book Critics Circle Award Wins |
0 |
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National Book Critics Circle Award Nominations |
0 |
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National Book Award Wins |
0 |
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National Book Award Nominations |
0 |
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Man Booker Prize Wins |
0 |
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Man Booker Prize Nominations |
0 |
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PEN/Faulkner Award Wins |
0 |
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PEN/Faulkner Award Nominations |
0 |
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*Major Prize = Pulitzer Prize, National Book Critics Circle Award, National Book Award, Man Booker Prize, and PEN/Faulkner Award
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