Abstract

Introduction: An Authorial Credo -- How My Past Became Foreign -- Making This Book -- Themes and Structure -- Part I. Wanting the Past -- Nostalgia : Dreams and Nightmares -- Time Travelling -- Benefits and Burdens of the Past -- Part II. Disputing the Past -- Ancients Vs. Moderns : Tradition and Innovation -- The Look of Age : Aversion -- The Look of Age : Affection -- Part III. Knowing the Past -- Memory -- History -- Relics -- Part IV. Remaking the Past -- Saving the Past : Preservation and Replication -- Replacing the Past : Restoration and Re-Enactment -- Improving the Past -- Epilogue: The Past in the Present.