Hauntologies
The Fire These Times
88/ A History of Nothing (With Susan A. Crane)
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88/ A History of Nothing (With Susan A. Crane)

This is a conversation with Susan A. Crane, author of the book “Nothing Happened: A History

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Topics Discussed:

  • How do people think of the past?

  • What does Nothing even mean?

  • Four expressions of historical consciousness:
    1- Nothing Happened
    2- Nothing is the Way it Was
    3- Nothing has Changed
    4- Nothing is Left

  • How far away does the past have to be before being considered the past?

  • What the past says about the present

  • The examples of Germany, Chile, the USA, Spain and Lebanon

  • When histories become ruin

  • On biographies and ‘great men’

  • On ‘objectivity’ and ‘neutrality’ in history

Resources mentioned:

Recommended Books

  • In Memory of Memory by Maria Stepanova, translated by Sasha Dugdale

  • The Resonance of Unseen Things: Poetics, Power, Captivity, and UFOs in the American Uncanny by Susan Lepselter

  • Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments: Intimate Histories of Social Upheaval by Saidiya Hartman

  • A History of Silence: From the Renaissance to the Present Day by Alain Corbin

Discussion about this podcast

Hauntologies
The Fire These Times
A podcast project working to uplift internationalist dialogues on human rights, climate change, and visions of bold futures. Our unique editorial team are deeply committed to weaving together radical perspectives from the periphery. By Elia Ayoub, Leila Al-Shami, Ayman Makarem, Dana El Kurd, Karena Avedissian, Daniel Voskoboynik, Anna M, Aydın Yıldız, Ed S, Alice Bonfatti & Israa Abdel Fattah.
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