The Feeling of History

Today it seems the line between Europe and the Middle East, between Europeans and Muslim immigrants in their midst are hardening. Daily editorials compare the arrival of Muslim immigrants with the Muslim conquest of 711," warning that Europe will be called on to defend its southern and eastern borders. Violence and paranoia are alive and well in fortress Europe.In The Feeling of History, anthropologist Charles Hirschkind examines a movement in Spain to recuperate the idea of al-Andalus-the idea that contemporary Andalusia is linked in vitally important ways with medieval Islamic Iberia and that the challenge of the xenophobic present requires we recognize continuities with the Muslim past. Hirschkind explores the works and lives of writers, thinkers, poets, artists, and activists to show how they have elaborated an Andalusian sensorium. At stake is a mode of inquiring into the past from a position of experiential proximity, an affective standpoint of wonder and longing. Hirschkind also carefully tracesthe various itineraries of andalucismo from both colonial and anti-colonial efforts to contemporary movements supporting immigrant rights. The Feeling of History, a nuanced view into the way people experience their own past, bears witness to a philosophyof engaging the Middle East that experiments with alternative futures"--