Archive that, Comrade! Format: Trade Paper

After a brief introduction that sets the contemporary scene of “archive fever,” this book considers the political legacy of 1960s counterculture for what it reveals about the process of commemoration. How far can the archive serve as a platform for dialogue and debate between different generations of activists in a culture that fetishizes the evanescent present, practices a profound amnesia about its counterfactual past, and forecloses the sociological imagination of an alternative future? Can the Left establish its own autonomous model of commemoration?

Phil Cohen played a key role in the London counterculture scene of the 1960s. Currently he is research director of LivingMaps, a network of activists, artists, and academics developing a creative and critical approach to social mapping.