This chapter introduces the historical summary and argues for its utility as a commemorative form. While most narrative analyses of the Hebrew Bible focus on the long-form narratives contained in the Pentateuch, Deuteronomistic History, and Chronicler’s History, this study analyses the historical summary, a schematic overview of key events from Israel’s history contained in biblical and extra-biblical anthologies and embedded in narrative texts. While first analyzed by Gerhard Von Rad as a vestige of an ancient liturgical tradition, the variety of texts that fit under the rubric of historical summary should not be viewed as an archaic remnant of cultic performance that has given way to lengthier and more sophisticated narrative texts. They should instead be considered a vital and generative mnemonic resource in ancient Israel and Second Temple Judaism. These texts demonstrate the utility of a particular commemorative form, particularly suited to constructing a communal memory within a particular group. The historical summary fulfills this function through three formal affordances: its schematic narrative, presentation of a functional memory or “usable past,” and its presentation as performance.