Historical consciousness in contemporary society. Popular historical culture in the Netherlands, 1945-2000

The presence of history in everyday life is so ubiquitous that it hardly raises attention. Professional historians merely assume a general interest in the past, but is this assumption true? How can interest in history be defined? These are problematic questions that many historians have hardly pondered upon. The possibility should be considered that the historical interest of the lay public may differ significantly from the professional perception. Only in recent decades have historians begun to probe this issue. Since the early 1970’s, a limited but growing number of studies devoted to the ma... Mehr ...