Customer Reviews

Salt in the Sand: Memory, Violence, and the Nation-State in Chile, 1890 to the Present (Politics, History, and Culture)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I found this book to be thoughtful and provocative; it tells a compelling and difficult story that links violence, social/political unrest, and memory with nation-state projects and the kinds of affective connections that these projects require in citizens. The author draws you in in her juxtaposition of well-known and forgotten incidents in Chilean history, and with her complex reading of these events. Of particular note, _Salt in the Sand_ is groundbreaking in its vision of the state and how particular (state) projects require that constituents hold particular subjectivities --senses of themselves in relation to these projects. This book will appeal to those interested in social movements, nation-state formation, and the shifting relationships between citizens and states. Not for the faint of heart or for those wanting light bedtime reading, but well worth the trouble.

Other books may deal with memory and human rights but few deeply take history and theory into account while still providing a rich, human sense of what it might be like to live through a devastating century. The best of the memory in Chile books; the best of the memory studies books.