Book review: making history 'sexy': Solid academic credentials with a lively and enthusiastic performance is the formula to success for presenting history

Through case studies of leading historians, historical novelists, Hollywood filmmakers and television history presenters, Peter J. Beck looks critically at alternative literary and visual ways of presenting the past as both academic history and popular history. Catherine Hezser notes the book will be of interest to any historian whose job is to communicate his or her research results to the general public, although a more analytical examination of the actual outputs of historical popularisation is needed. Presenting History: Past and Present. Peter J. Beck. Palgrave Macmillan. November 2011.