Commemorations

by Gillis, John R.

• ISBN13: 9780691029252
• ISBN10: 0691029253
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1996-09-16
• Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr

Summary

Memory is as central to modern politics as politics is central to modern memory. We are so accustomed to living in a forest of monuments, to having the past represented to us through museums, historic sites, and public sculpture, that we easily lose sight of the recent origins and diverse meanings of these uniquely modern phenomena. In this volume, leading historians, anthropologists, and ethnographers explore the relationship between collective memory and national identity in diverse cultures throughout history. Placing commemorations in their historical settings, the contributors disclose the contested nature of these monuments by showing how groups and individuals struggle to shape the past to their own ends. The volume is introduced by John Gillis's broad overview of the development of public memory in relation to the history of the nation-state. Other contributions address the usefulness of identity as a cross-cultural concept (Richard Handler), the connection between identity, heritage, and history (David Lowenthal), national memory in early modern England (David Cressy), commemoration in Cleveland (John Bodnar), the museum and the politics of social control in modern Iraq (Eric Davis), invented tradition and collective memory in Israel (Yael Zerubavel), black emancipation and the civil war monument (Kirk Savage), memory and naming in the Great War (Thomas Laqueur), American commemoration of World War I (Kurt Piehler), art, commerce, and the production of memory in France after World War I (Daniel Sherman), historic preservation in twentieth-century Germany (Rudy Koshar), the struggle over French identity in the early twentieth century (Herman Lebovics), and the commemoration of concentration camps in the new Germany (Claudia Koonz).

Author Biography

John R. Gillis is Professor of History at Rutgers University

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	ix	(2)
Notes on Contributors	xi
INTRODUCTION Memory and Identity: The History of a Relationship	3	(24)
John R. Gillis
PART ONE: The Problem of Identity and Memory	27	(34)
CHAPTER I Is " Identity" a Useful Cross-Cultural Concept?	27	(14)
Richard Handler
CHAPTER II Identity, Heritage, and History	41	(20)
David Lowenthal
PART TWO: Memory in the Construction of National Identities	61	(66)
CHAPTER III National Memory in Early Modern England	61	(13)
David Cressy
CHAPTER IV Public Memory in an American City: Commemoration in Cleveland	74	(16)
John Bodnar
CHAPTER V The Museum and the Politics of Social Control in Modern Iraq	90	(15)
Eric Davis
CHAPTER VI The Historic, the Legendary, and the Incredible: Invented Tradition and Collective Memory in Israel	105	(22)
Yael Zerubavel
PART THREE: Memories of War and Wars over Memory	127	(88)
CHAPTER VII The Politics of Memory: Black Emancipation and the Civil War Monument	127	(23)
Kirk Savage
CHAPTER VIII Memory and Naming in the Great War	150	(18)
Thomas W. Laqueur
CHAPTER IX The War Dead and the Gold Star: American Commemoration of the First World War	168	(18)
G. Kurt Piehler
CHAPTER X Art, Commerce, and the Production of Memory in France after World War I	186	(29)
Daniel J. Sherman
PART FOUR: Politics of Memory and Identity	215	(66)
CHAPTER XI Building Pasts: Historic Preservation and Identity in Twentieth-Century Germany	215	(24)
Rudy J. Koshar
CHAPTER XII Creating the Authentic France: Struggles over French Identity in the First Half of the Twentieth Century	239	(19)
Herman Lebovics
CHAPTER XIII Between Memory and Oblivion: Concentration Camps in German Memory	258	(23)
Claudia Koonz
Index	281