The Collective Memory Reader

There are few terms or concepts that have in the last twenty or so years rivaled collective memory for attention in the humanities and social sciences. Indeed use of the term has extended far beyond scholarship to the realm of politics and journalism where it has appeared in speeches at the centers of power and on the front pages of the world''s leading newspapers. The current efflorescence of interest in memory however is no mere passing fad: it is a hallmark characteristic of our age and a crucial site for understanding our present social political and cultural conditions. Scholars and others in numerous fields have thus employed the concept of collective memory sociological in origin to guide their inquiries into diverse though allegedly connected phenomena. Nevertheless there remains a great deal of confusion about the meaning origin and implication of the term and the field of inquiry it underwrites.The Collective Memory Reader presents organizes and evaluates past work and contemporary contributions on the questions raised under the rubric of collective memory. Combining seminal texts hard-to-find classics previously untranslated references and contemporary landmarks it will serve as an essential resource for teaching and research in the field. In addition in both its selections as well as in its editorial materials it suggests a novel life-story for the field one that appreciates recent innovations but only against the background of a long history addition to its major editorial introduction which outlines a useful past for contemporary memory studies The Collective Memory Reader includes five sections--Precursors and Classics; History Memory and Identity; Power Politics and Contestation; Media and Modes of Transmission; Memory Justice and the Contemporary Epoch--comprising ninety-one texts. In addition to the essay introducing the entire volume a brief editorial essay introduces each of the sections while brief capsules frame each of the 91 texts.