The new volume of the journal "Historein" focuses on “public histories”. It addresses the issue of the “past in the present” and explores the various facets of history in contemporary cultures. It is interested in the second life of the past beyond the confines of the historical discipline and profession as well as in the multiple ways the present produces, communicates and consumes the past. By recognizing public images and representations of the past as critical elements in the making and unmaking of subjectivities and collectivities, the volume turns to the various claims on history in different contexts and discusses debates and struggles over the past. Particular emphasis is given to history, memory and politics in post-communist contexts including countries of the former Soviet Union, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, transformations of national histories in post-national frames, changing aspects of historiography, history and memory as well as the impact of new technologies on images of the past, i.e. digitization, the emergence of new media, the advancement of visual technologies and the crystallization of visual culture. Public histories and historical cultures are discussed within the domain of complex social practices and cultural politics.

Attached to the volume is a cd-rom containing textual and visual material from the conference “Claiming History: Aspects of Contemporary Historical Culture” which "Historein" organized in 2001. Analytical perspectives involve important issues such as representations of the Holocaust in film, national monuments and national remembrance, cybercultures and the past, practices of embodying history in fiction, television and documentary, visual history.

Contributors in the volume include Mark Poster, Gregory Paschalidis, Hagen Fleischer, Hara Kouki, Ulf Brunnbauer, Ivan Elenkov, Daniela Koleva, Michael Löwy, Ioanna Petropoulou.