LINES OF THE DAY

". . . But the past does not exist independently from the present. Indeed, the past is only past because there is a present, just as I can point to something over there only because I am here. But nothing is inherently over there or here. In that sense, the past has no content. The past -- or more accurately, pastness -- is a position. Thus, in no way can we identify the past as past." p. 15

". . . But we may want to keep in mind that deeds and words are not as distinguishable as often we presume. History does not belong only to its narrators, professional or amateur. While some of us debate what history is or was, others take it into their own hands." p. 153

Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History (1995) by Michel-Rolph Trouillot

Friday, March 22, 2013

This Time, It Was To Glasgow

I've read with great interest the review of outstanding Marxist historian and all around cultural and political critic, Eric Hobsbawm's final book, Fractured Times: Culture and Society in the 20th Century, a posthumous collection of his essays, as well as the extract taken from it, "The American Cowboy," both in the Guardian.

In the comments to the Guardian review a commenter wrote:

My city Glasgow became an industrial powerhouse built upon the
enslavement of Africans, you can still see it in street names: Virginia
Street, Tobago Street etc.
For instance:






There were slave owners in Glasgow also; here is one who wishes to sell his 19 year old slave woman, who was brought from Charleston, South Carolina:


You never know where things will lead you.

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