A European Memory?: Contested Histories and Politics of Remembrance

by Małgorzata Pakier (Editor), Bo Stråth (Editor)

Overview

An examination of the role of history and memory is vital in order to better understand why the grand design of a United Europe—with a common foreign policy and market yet enough diversity to allow for cultural and social differences—was overwhelmingly turned down by its citizens. The authors argue that this rejection of the European constitution was to a certain extent a challenge to the current historical grounding used for further integration and further demonstrates the lack of understanding by European bureaucrats of the historical complexity and divisiveness of Europe’s past. A critical European history is therefore urgently needed to confront and re-imagine Europe, not as a harmonious continent but as the outcome of violent and bloody conflicts, both within Europe as well as with its Others. As the authors show, these dark shadows of Europe’s past must be integrated, and the fact that memories of Europe are contested must be accepted if any new attempts at a United Europe are to be successful.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780857454300
Publisher:	Berghahn Books, Incorporated
Publication date:	01/01/2012
Series:	Contemporary European History , #6
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	372
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.77(d)

About the Author

Bo Stråth was Professor of Contemporary History at the European University Institute in Florence (1997–2007) and is currently Academy of Finland Distinguished Professor of Nordic, European and World History at Helsinki University. His research concentrates on questions of modernity and the use of history in a European and global perspective.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgements

Notes on Contributors

Introduction: A European Memory?

Małgorzata Pakier and Bo Stråth

Part I. Europe, Memory, Politics, and History. Uneasy Relationships

Chapter 1. On ‘European Memory’: Some Conceptual and Normative Remarks

Jan –Werner Müller

Chapter 2. The Uses of History and the Third Wave of Europeanization

Klas-Göran Karlsson

Chapter 3. Halecki Revisited: Europe’s Conflicting Cultures of Remembrance

Stefan Troebst

Chapter 4. Iconic Remembering and Religious Icons: Fundamentalist Strategies in European Memory Politics?

Wolfgang Kaschuba

Chapter 5. Culture, Politics, Palimpsest. Theses on Memory and Society

Heidemarie Uhl

Chapter 6. Damnatio Memoriae and the Power of Remembrance. Reflections on Memory and History

Frederick Whitling

Chapter 7. Seeing Dark and Writing Light: Photography Approaching Dark and Obscure Histories

James Kaye

Part II. Remembering Europe’s Dark Pasts

Section 1. Remembering the Second World War:

Chapter 8. Remembering the Second World War in Western Europe 1945 – 2005

Stefan Berger

Chapter 9. Practices and Politics of Second World War Remembrance. (Trans-)National Perspectives from Eastern and South-eastern Europe

Heike Karge

Chapter 10. A Victory Celebrated. Danish and Norwegian Celebrations of the Liberation

Clemens Maier

Section 2. Towards a Europeanization of the Commemoration of the Holocaust:

Chapter 11. Remembering Europe’s Heart of Darkness - Legacies of the Holocaust in Post-war European Societies

Cecilie Felicia Stokholm Banke

Chapter 12. Holocaust Remembrance and Restitution of Jewish Property in the Czech Republic and Poland after 1989

Stanisław Tyszka

Chapter 13. A Europeanization of the Holocaust Memory? German and Polish Reception of Europa, Europa (1990) by Agnieszka Holland

Małgorzata Pakier

Chapter 14. Italian Commemoration of the Shoah. The Construction of a Survivor-oriented Narrative and its Impact on Italian Politics and Practices of Remembrance

Ruth Nattermann

Section 3. Coming to Terms with Europe’s Communist Past:

Chapter 15. Managing the History of the Past in the Former Communist States

Arfon Rees

Chapter 16. Eurocommunism. Commemorating Communism in Contemporary Eastern Europe

Péter Apor

Chapter 17. The Memory of the Dead Body

Senadin Musabegović

Chapter 18. Neither Help nor Pardon? Communist Pasts in Western Europe

Kevin Morgan

Section 4. Coming to Terms with Europe’s Colonial Past:

Chapter 19. Politics of Remembrance, Colonialism, and the Algerian War in France

Jan Jansen

Chapter 20. Memory Politics and the Use of History: Finnish-speaking Minorities at the North Calotte

Lars Elenius

Conclusion: Nightmares or Daydreams? A Postscript on the Europeanization of Memories

Konrad H. Jarausch

Bibliography

Editorial Reviews

“Editors Malgorzata Pakier and Bo Strath and the score of contributing scholars deserve commendation for a collection of ambitious essays, many of which represent bold attempts at explaining and synthesizing complex concepts and processes.”·Journal of Cold War Studies

“The book provides an extremely useful guide through the labyrinth of issues concerning Europeans and the politics of remembrance. The editors deserve great credit for taking on and attempting to represent the multiplicity of debates that characterize contemporary European visions of and debates about the past.” · Central European History

“This work assembles the most recent reflections on the cultural unification of Europe as well as…proposes a serious interdisciplinary discussion of practices of memory. A work that is useful for whoever wishes to have an overview of the questions arising from the internationalization of national memoirs and to reflect on the role of the historian in the context of the multiple discourses on the past.” · Histoire sociale/Social History

“An anthology of impressive and seminal scholarly research, ‘A European Memory?’ is a welcome addition to the Berghahn Books' outstanding 'Studies in Contemporary European History' series and highly recommended for academic library European History reference collections and supplemental reading lists.” · Bookwatch

“[This timely volume] comes as a worthy and insightful reader on one of the core fields of debate in European social and human sciences, with its focus on the representations of the most deplorable parts of European twentieth-century history…Many of its articles offer interesting thoughts and useful introductions, highlighting both actors and structures of ‘memory production’…It will no doubt be a handy companion in classes on politics and history in contemporary Europe.” · H-Soz-u-Kult

“As the most comprehensive scholarly venture to use the memory concept for a broad assessment of the dark legacies of Nazism, Communism, and World War II for a common European identity, the volume has no equal. It overwhelms the reader with a plethora of both new and well established information and reflection…The overall direction coincides with the current trend towards internationalization of national histories. It can be considered a strong contribution to this important and worthwhile trend.”·Frank Trommler, University of Pennsylvania

From the Publisher