The problem is that the past would not end so that it could be put on display, examined, and explained, but could no longer impinge on the present as it went about shaping the future, says Anderson (English, Mississippi State U.). He explores how a historical imagination in early modern English playwrights does battle with the memory of a traumatic past that insistently pressed its claim on the present. Annotation ©2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)