Finding Shared Agency in Modernist Histories: Past Action

By Kelly Wagers

Ebook available to libraries exclusively as part of the JSTOR Path to Open intiative.

Past Action: Finding Shared Agency in Modernist Histories by Kelley Wagers offers a timely and thought-provoking reconsideration of how history functions in both literary and social life. At a moment when debates over the value, relevance, and political implications of historical study dominate public discourse, this book returns to a formative period in the early twentieth century to uncover how writers and historians grappled with similar concerns. Drawing on a range of American modernist texts published between 1918 and 1938, Wagers argues that history is not merely a record of past events but a dynamic social practice through which people recognize one another, construct meaning together, and enact collective agency.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 163804239X
• ISBN13: 9781638042396
• Release Date: November 2026
• Publisher: Clemson University Press W/ Lup
• Length: 256 Pages