States of Memory

Continuities, Conflicts, and Transformations in National Retrospection

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Edited by Jeffrey K. Olick

Duke University Press

Due/Published May 2003, 352 pages, paper

ISBN 0822330636

States of Memory illuminates the construction of national memory from a comparative perspective. The essays collected here emphasize that memory itself has a history: not only do particular meanings change, but the very faculty of memory--its place in social relations and the forms it takes--varies over time. Integrating theories of memory and of nationalism with case studies, these essays stake a middle ground between particular and universal approaches to social memory studies.

The contributors--including historians and social scientists--describe societies' struggles to produce and then use ideas of what a "normal" past should look like. They examine claims about the genuineness of revolution (in fascist Italy and Communist Russia), of inclusiveness (in the United States and Australia), of innocence (in Germany), and of inevitability (in Israel). Essayists explore the reputation of Confucius among Maoist leaders during China's Cultural Revolution; commemorations of Martin Luther King Jr. in the U.S. House and Senate; the "end" of the postwar era in Japan; and how national calendars--in signifying what to remember, celebrate, or mourn--structure national identification. Above all, these essays reveal that memory is never unitary, no matter how hard various powers strive to make it so.

Contributors: Paloma Aguillar, Fred Corney, Carol Gluck, Matt Matsuda, Jeffrey K. Olick, Francesca Polletta, Uri Ram, Barry Schwartz, Lyn Spillman, Charles Tilly, Simonetta Falasca Zamponi, Eviatar Zerubavel, Tong Zhang