Memory and the Impact of Political Transformation in Public Space (Radical Perspectives) [Paperback]

Daniel J. Walkowitz (Editor), Lisa Maya Knauer (Editor), Irina Carlota Silber (Contributor), T.M. Scruggs (Contributor), Bill Nasson (Contributor), Mary Nolan (Contributor), Anna Krylova (Contributor), Seltz Daniel (Contributor), John Czaplicka (Contributor), James Carter (Contributor)

Book Description

Series: Radical Perspectives | Publication Date: November 30, 2004

Memory and the Impact of Political Transformation in Public Space explores the effects of major upheavals—wars, decolonization, and other social and economic changes—on the ways in which public histories are presented around the world. Examining issues related to public memory in twelve countries, the histories collected here cut across political, cultural, and geographic divisions. At the same time, by revealing recurring themes and concerns, they show how basic issues of history and memory transcend specific sites and moments in time. A number of the essays look at contests over public memory following two major political transformations: the wave of liberation from colonial rule in much of Africa, Asia, and Central and South America during the second half of the twentieth century and the reorganization of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet bloc beginning in the late 1980s.

This collection expands the scope of what is considered public history by pointing to silences and absences that are as telling as museums and memorials. Contributors remind us that for every monument that is erected, others—including one celebrating Sri Lanka’s independence and another honoring the Unknown Russian Soldier of World War II—remain on the drawing board. While some sites seem woefully underserved by a lack of public memorials—as do post–Pinochet Chile and post–civil war El Salvador—others run the risk of diluting meaning through overexposure, as may be happening with Israel’s Masada. Essayists examine public history as it is conveyed not only in marble and stone but also through cityscapes and performances such as popular songs and parades.

Contributors
James Carter
John Czaplicka
Kanishka Goonewardena
Lisa Maya Knauer
Anna Krylova
Teresa Meade
Bill Nasson
Mary Nolan
Cynthia Paces
Andrew Ross
Daniel Seltz
T. M. Scruggs
Irina Carlota Silber
Daniel J. Walkowitz
Yael Zerubavel

Editorial Reviews

Review

“This outstanding collection of essays pushes the boundaries of our understanding of how memory is a powerful force in political transformations around the world. Informed by theoretical writings, but not weighed down by them, the authors tell compelling stories of struggles over memory in a wide range of places. This volume should be read and pondered not only by those thinking and writing about how societies remember but also by those planners and architects and politicians who are rushing to memorialize our own traumatic events.”—Max Page, author of The Creative Destruction of Manhattan, 1900–1940

“When issues of history and memory are publicly controversial, the controversy almost always takes a highly particular contextual form. Striking in its combination of intellectual depth and refreshingly concrete detail, this volume’s unique contribution is to invite reflection on how quite different situations speak to each other, suggesting more general insights that transcend particular contexts.”—Michael Frisch, author of Portraits in Steel

About the Author

Daniel J. Walkowitz is Director of College Honors and Professor of History and Metropolitan Studies at New York University.

Lisa Maya Knauer is Assistant Professor of Anthropology and African/African-American Studies at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth.

Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Duke University Press Books (November 30, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0822333643
• ISBN-13: 978-0822333647
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #828,209 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Daniel J. Walkowitz is an social and cultural historian who specializes in labor and urban history. A professor of Social and Cultural Analysis and of History at New York University, he is the author and editor of nearly a dozen books, notably, Working With Class (North Carolina, 1999) and Worker City, Company Town (Illinois, 1978), and he has produced film versions of several of them for public television. He is presently at work on a documentary based on his latest book, City Folk, (NYU Press, 2010), which he is co-producing with folklorists from the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, and which they hope will appear in 2011. A folk dancer himself for nearly half a century, his recent work combines participant observation with video oral histories and archival research.

Daniel lives in New York with his wife, Judith, who is also a historian and their two Maine Coon cats, Josephine and Bellamy. They have a daughter Rebecca who teaches at Rutgers and a granddaughter, Lucy.