Gillis, John R. : Rutgers the State University of New Jersey New Brunsick Campus
John R. Gillis is Professor of History at Rutgers University. His most recent book is A World of Their Own Making:
Myth, Ritual, and the Quest for Family Values.
Review
"This fascinating book, . . . points out how peoples and nations can use national identity to erase the
past, to recreate it, to cause it to flourish, to meld it in with the present and the future."
--Peter Rollins, Journal of American Culture
"Brilliantly conceived and meticulously edited; the contributions are uniformly excellent. . . . No better
introduction to the burgeoning field of historical memory is likely to be found."
--Merrill D. Peterson, The Journal of American History
"Scholars of collective memory, and the sociology of culture more generally, will find much that is provocative
and poignant in this collection."
--Robin WagnerPacifici, Contemporary Sociology
"This is a vital book which deserves our utmost attention."
--Martin Evans, History Today
"Demonstrates that 'memory work' reveals as much about the present as about the past. And that can make
extraordinary history."
--Christine Schwartz, The Voice Literary Supplement
Submitted by Publisher, April, 2002.
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 nationstate. Other contributions address the usefulness of identity
as a crosscultural 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 twentiethcentury 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).
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Notes on Contributors
Introduction: Memory and Identity: The History of a Relationship
Ch. I Is "Identity" a Useful Cross-Cultural Concept?
Ch. II Identity, Heritage, and History
Ch. III National Memory in Early Modern England
Ch. IV Public Memory in an American City: Commemoration in Cleveland
Ch. V The Museum and the Politics of Social Control in Modern Iraq
Ch. VI The Historic, the Legendary, and the Incredible: Invented Tradition and Collective Memory in Israel
Ch. VII The Politics of Memory: Black Emancipation and the Civil War Monument
Ch. VIII Memory and Naming in the Great War
Ch. IX The War Dead and the Gold Star: American Commemoration of the First World War
Ch. X Art, Commerce, and the Production of Memory in France after World War I
Ch. XI Building Pasts: Historic Preservation and Identity in Twentieth-Century Germany
Ch. XII Creating the Authentic France: Struggles over French Identity in the First Half of the Twentieth Century
Ch. XIII Between Memory and Oblivion: Concentration Camps in German Memory
