46 A related question in film studies asks if viewers of films imagine themselves there at the events (or
looking through the lens). See, e.g., Currie (1995: 171), who argues convincingly against this view.
47 Persians, lines 1007–1040 in Aeschylus (1961: 150).
48 The idea that historical discourse requires knowing more than an informed contemporary is a
central claim in Danto (1965); Mink (1970) offers a similar analysis of story-telling in general.
49 Blanning (2007: 3).
50 Hobbes (1822: vi). Hobbes also gives the Plutarch quotation. I’m grateful to my colleague, Marcus
Giaquinto, for directing my attention to this quotation.
51 From a letter to his family, July 28, 1835; see Büchner (1993: 201).
52 De Certeau (1988: xxvii).
53 Mink (1970: 557).
54 Rokem (2000) explores this lack of success, with respect to its reception in America.
55 For a detailed analysis of Büchner’s use of sources, see Büchner (2006: 485–498). Note, of course,
that the play was written in German and the speeches were made in French, so the words are
translated.
56 See Norton-Taylor (1997).
57 White (1980) certainly wouldn’t disagree with this statement; but he argues that, in not being
placed in a conventional narrative, the annals has certain virtues that are overlooked by modern-day
readers.
58 Several modern playwrights, Brecht among them, have tried to solve this problem. We discuss
some of his ideas in Chapter 7.
59 See‘Historical Evidence’in Collingwood (1994).
60 See e.g. Frayn (2010: 251–87).
61 Paul Taylor,‘Theatre Nuremberg: The War Crimes Trial’, theIndependent, 10th May, 1996.
Taylor takes it to be the former.98 From the World to the Stage