“Fit for Purpose? The Concept of Genocide and Civilian Destruction,” in Donald Bloxham and A. Dir... more “Fit for Purpose? The Concept of Genocide and Civilian Destruction,” in Donald Bloxham and A. Dirk Moses, eds., Genocide: Key Themes (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2022), 12-44.
“The German Campaign against Cultural Freedom: Documenta 15 in Context,” Grey Room, no. 92 (Summe... more “The German Campaign against Cultural Freedom: Documenta 15 in Context,” Grey Room, no. 92 (Summer 2023), 75-93.
in Jürgen Zimmerer, ed., Erinnerungskämpfe: Neues deutsches Geschichtsbewusstsein (Stuttgart: Reklam, 2023), 214-240., 2023
“‘Die deutsche Debatte ist von Obsessionen geprägt’: Erinnerungsräumliche Betrachtungen zum Katec... more “‘Die deutsche Debatte ist von Obsessionen geprägt’: Erinnerungsräumliche Betrachtungen zum Katechismus der Deutschen,” in Jürgen Zimmerer, ed., Erinnerungskämpfe: Neues deutsches Geschichtsbewusstsein (Stuttgart: Reklam, 2023), 214-240.
In: Mlada Bukovansky, Edward Keene, Maja Spanu, and Chris Reus-Smit, eds., The Oxford Handbook on History and International Relations (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2023). , 2023
Memory and the Future: Transnational Politics, Ethics and Society edited by Yifat Gutman, Adam D.... more Memory and the Future: Transnational Politics, Ethics and Society edited by Yifat Gutman, Adam D. Brown, and Amy Sodaro (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010. Pp. 232. £50.
The spectre of "patriotism" continues to haunt countries around the world. In 2015, Patriot Park ... more The spectre of "patriotism" continues to haunt countries around the world. In 2015, Patriot Park was opened in Kubinka, one hour's drive from Moscow. Combining the Main Cathedral of the Russian Armed Forces with entertainment centres and an exhibition venue hosting the world's biggest collection of armed vehicles, Patriot Park is supposed to strengthen Russia's "system of military-patriotic work with young people." 1 In 2016, the Chinese Ministry of Education called for "patriotic education" to be included in Chinese school curricula and university teaching. Chinese children and students should learn to "always follow the party" and "constantly enhance their sense of belonging to the Chinese nation." 2 In 2020, Donald Trump established the "1776 Commission" to support "patriotic education" and defend American history against liberal and leftist revisionism. 3 Further examples of a "patriotic" turn in memory politics abound. 4 The state-mandated or state-encouraged "patriotic" histories that have recently emerged in so many places around the globe is a complex phenomenon. It can revolve around both affirmative interpretations of history and celebration of past achievements, and an explicitly denialist stance opposed to acknowledging responsibility for past atrocities, even to the extent of celebrating perpetrators. Whereas in some cases "patriotic" history takes the shape of a coherent doctrine, in others it remains limited to loosely connected narratives. Despite differences between the individual settings, there is little doubt that state-mandated or state-encouraged "patriotic" history is more confrontational and combative than a "feel good history" promoting positive sentiments for one's country, 5 and that it cannot be limited to the "illiberal memory" accompanying the recent rise of
This article argues that Hayden White's vision of historiography can be appropriated for... more This article argues that Hayden White's vision of historiography can be appropriated for the public use of history in many ethnic and nationalist conflicts today. That is, it can be used to provide the theoretical arguments that justify the instrumentalization of histor-ical memory by ...
All in all, The Fragility of Empathy after the Holocaust is a thoughtful work of analysis, but it... more All in all, The Fragility of Empathy after the Holocaust is a thoughtful work of analysis, but its loosely related essays never really settle on a common theme. The closest Dean comes to a unifying thesis appears in her brief conclusion, where she describes the current discourses on ...
Bohleber, Werner, 2003, Collective Phantasms, Destructiveness, and Terrorism, in Sverre Varvin ... more Bohleber, Werner, 2003, Collective Phantasms, Destructiveness, and Terrorism, in Sverre Varvin and Vamik D. Vokan, eds., Violence or Dialogue? Psychoanalytic Insights on Terror and Terrorism. London: International Psychoanalytic Association, 111-31.
Jenseits der Mbembe-Debatte Erinnerung, Politik, Solidarität , 2022
in Matthias Böckmann, Reinhart Koessler, Matthias Gockel, and Henning Melber, eds., Jenseits der ... more in Matthias Böckmann, Reinhart Koessler, Matthias Gockel, and Henning Melber, eds., Jenseits der Mbembe-Debatte Erinnerung, Politik, Solidarität (Berlin: Metropol Verlag, 2022), 156-174.
“Deutschlands Erinnerungskultur und der ‘Terror der Geschichte,’” in Susan Neiman and Michael Wil... more “Deutschlands Erinnerungskultur und der ‘Terror der Geschichte,’” in Susan Neiman and Michael Wildt, ed., Historiker Streiten (Berlin: Ullstein Verlag, 2022), 199-242.
Simon Lewis, Jeffrey K. Olick, Małgorzata Pakier, and Joanna Wawrzyniak, eds., Regions of Memory: Transnational Formations (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2022), 101-138., 2022
The nascent eld of Memory Studies emerges from contemporary trends that include a shift from conc... more The nascent eld of Memory Studies emerges from contemporary trends that include a shift from concern with historical knowledge of events to that of memory, from 'what we know' to 'how we remember it'; changes in generational memory; the rapid advance of technologies of memory; panics over declining powers of memory, which mirror our fascination with the possibilities of memory enhancement; and the development of trauma narratives in reshaping the past. These factors have contributed to an intensi cation of public discourses on our past over the last thirty years. Technological, political, interpersonal, social and cultural shifts affect what, how and why people and societies remember and forget. This groundbreaking series tackles questions such as: What is 'memory' under these conditions? What are its prospects, and also the prospects for its interdisciplinary and systematic study? What are the conceptual, theoretical and methodological tools for its investigation and illumination?
Hayden White wants history to serve life by having it inspire an ethical consciousness, by which ... more Hayden White wants history to serve life by having it inspire an ethical consciousness, by which he means that in facing the existential questions of life, death, trauma, and suffering posed by human history, people are moved to formulate answers to them rather than to feel that they have no power to choose how they live. The ethical historian should craft narratives that inspire people to live meaningfully rather than try to provide explanations or reconstructions of past events that make them feel as if they cannot control their destiny. This Nietzschean-inspired vision of history is inadequate because it cannot gainsay that a genocidal vision of history is immoral. White may be right that cultural relativism results in cultural pluralism and toleration, but what if most people are not cultural relativists, and believe fervently in their right to specific lands at the expense of other peoples? White does not think historiography or perhaps any moral system can provide an answer. Is he right? This rejoinder argues that the communicative rationality implicit in the human sciences does provide norms about the moral use of history because it institutionalizes an intersubjectivity in which the use of the past is governed by norms of impartiality and fair-mindedness, and protocols of evidence based on honest research. Max Weber, equally influenced by Nietzsche, developed an alternative vision of teaching and research that is still relevant today. Little did I imagine, on October 13, 1995, when I sat on the floor in a crowded seminar room in Dwinelle Hall at the University of California at Berkeley, that one day I would be crossing swords on these pages with the guest speaker, Hayden White. He was, and remains, after all, the most influential critic of the discipline of history over the past forty years, a thinker whose dissections of its conceits, as elegant as they are erudite, have forced historians to reflect critically on what they do. If they have often responded defensively, literary scholars and philosophers have welcomed his apparent skepticism, a pattern of reaction that recurred with his talk, "The First Historical Event: A Rhetorical Exercise," hosted by the Department of Rhetoric. While we few interlopers from the Department of History squirmed uncomfortably, the sophisticated graduate students in comparative literature and rhetoric chortled as they learned that historians believed they "find" the past ready-made in the archives. Had we not heard the news that reality, past and present, was a "construction"? It is fascinating to learn what colleagues down the corridor really think of what you do. The disci-1. I thank Neil Levi and Geoffrey Brahm Levey for critical comments on an earlier draft.
“Fit for Purpose? The Concept of Genocide and Civilian Destruction,” in Donald Bloxham and A. Dir... more “Fit for Purpose? The Concept of Genocide and Civilian Destruction,” in Donald Bloxham and A. Dirk Moses, eds., Genocide: Key Themes (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2022), 12-44.
“The German Campaign against Cultural Freedom: Documenta 15 in Context,” Grey Room, no. 92 (Summe... more “The German Campaign against Cultural Freedom: Documenta 15 in Context,” Grey Room, no. 92 (Summer 2023), 75-93.
in Jürgen Zimmerer, ed., Erinnerungskämpfe: Neues deutsches Geschichtsbewusstsein (Stuttgart: Reklam, 2023), 214-240., 2023
“‘Die deutsche Debatte ist von Obsessionen geprägt’: Erinnerungsräumliche Betrachtungen zum Katec... more “‘Die deutsche Debatte ist von Obsessionen geprägt’: Erinnerungsräumliche Betrachtungen zum Katechismus der Deutschen,” in Jürgen Zimmerer, ed., Erinnerungskämpfe: Neues deutsches Geschichtsbewusstsein (Stuttgart: Reklam, 2023), 214-240.
In: Mlada Bukovansky, Edward Keene, Maja Spanu, and Chris Reus-Smit, eds., The Oxford Handbook on History and International Relations (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2023). , 2023
Memory and the Future: Transnational Politics, Ethics and Society edited by Yifat Gutman, Adam D.... more Memory and the Future: Transnational Politics, Ethics and Society edited by Yifat Gutman, Adam D. Brown, and Amy Sodaro (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010. Pp. 232. £50.
The spectre of "patriotism" continues to haunt countries around the world. In 2015, Patriot Park ... more The spectre of "patriotism" continues to haunt countries around the world. In 2015, Patriot Park was opened in Kubinka, one hour's drive from Moscow. Combining the Main Cathedral of the Russian Armed Forces with entertainment centres and an exhibition venue hosting the world's biggest collection of armed vehicles, Patriot Park is supposed to strengthen Russia's "system of military-patriotic work with young people." 1 In 2016, the Chinese Ministry of Education called for "patriotic education" to be included in Chinese school curricula and university teaching. Chinese children and students should learn to "always follow the party" and "constantly enhance their sense of belonging to the Chinese nation." 2 In 2020, Donald Trump established the "1776 Commission" to support "patriotic education" and defend American history against liberal and leftist revisionism. 3 Further examples of a "patriotic" turn in memory politics abound. 4 The state-mandated or state-encouraged "patriotic" histories that have recently emerged in so many places around the globe is a complex phenomenon. It can revolve around both affirmative interpretations of history and celebration of past achievements, and an explicitly denialist stance opposed to acknowledging responsibility for past atrocities, even to the extent of celebrating perpetrators. Whereas in some cases "patriotic" history takes the shape of a coherent doctrine, in others it remains limited to loosely connected narratives. Despite differences between the individual settings, there is little doubt that state-mandated or state-encouraged "patriotic" history is more confrontational and combative than a "feel good history" promoting positive sentiments for one's country, 5 and that it cannot be limited to the "illiberal memory" accompanying the recent rise of
This article argues that Hayden White's vision of historiography can be appropriated for... more This article argues that Hayden White's vision of historiography can be appropriated for the public use of history in many ethnic and nationalist conflicts today. That is, it can be used to provide the theoretical arguments that justify the instrumentalization of histor-ical memory by ...
All in all, The Fragility of Empathy after the Holocaust is a thoughtful work of analysis, but it... more All in all, The Fragility of Empathy after the Holocaust is a thoughtful work of analysis, but its loosely related essays never really settle on a common theme. The closest Dean comes to a unifying thesis appears in her brief conclusion, where she describes the current discourses on ...
Bohleber, Werner, 2003, Collective Phantasms, Destructiveness, and Terrorism, in Sverre Varvin ... more Bohleber, Werner, 2003, Collective Phantasms, Destructiveness, and Terrorism, in Sverre Varvin and Vamik D. Vokan, eds., Violence or Dialogue? Psychoanalytic Insights on Terror and Terrorism. London: International Psychoanalytic Association, 111-31.
Jenseits der Mbembe-Debatte Erinnerung, Politik, Solidarität , 2022
in Matthias Böckmann, Reinhart Koessler, Matthias Gockel, and Henning Melber, eds., Jenseits der ... more in Matthias Böckmann, Reinhart Koessler, Matthias Gockel, and Henning Melber, eds., Jenseits der Mbembe-Debatte Erinnerung, Politik, Solidarität (Berlin: Metropol Verlag, 2022), 156-174.
“Deutschlands Erinnerungskultur und der ‘Terror der Geschichte,’” in Susan Neiman and Michael Wil... more “Deutschlands Erinnerungskultur und der ‘Terror der Geschichte,’” in Susan Neiman and Michael Wildt, ed., Historiker Streiten (Berlin: Ullstein Verlag, 2022), 199-242.
Simon Lewis, Jeffrey K. Olick, Małgorzata Pakier, and Joanna Wawrzyniak, eds., Regions of Memory: Transnational Formations (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2022), 101-138., 2022
The nascent eld of Memory Studies emerges from contemporary trends that include a shift from conc... more The nascent eld of Memory Studies emerges from contemporary trends that include a shift from concern with historical knowledge of events to that of memory, from 'what we know' to 'how we remember it'; changes in generational memory; the rapid advance of technologies of memory; panics over declining powers of memory, which mirror our fascination with the possibilities of memory enhancement; and the development of trauma narratives in reshaping the past. These factors have contributed to an intensi cation of public discourses on our past over the last thirty years. Technological, political, interpersonal, social and cultural shifts affect what, how and why people and societies remember and forget. This groundbreaking series tackles questions such as: What is 'memory' under these conditions? What are its prospects, and also the prospects for its interdisciplinary and systematic study? What are the conceptual, theoretical and methodological tools for its investigation and illumination?
Hayden White wants history to serve life by having it inspire an ethical consciousness, by which ... more Hayden White wants history to serve life by having it inspire an ethical consciousness, by which he means that in facing the existential questions of life, death, trauma, and suffering posed by human history, people are moved to formulate answers to them rather than to feel that they have no power to choose how they live. The ethical historian should craft narratives that inspire people to live meaningfully rather than try to provide explanations or reconstructions of past events that make them feel as if they cannot control their destiny. This Nietzschean-inspired vision of history is inadequate because it cannot gainsay that a genocidal vision of history is immoral. White may be right that cultural relativism results in cultural pluralism and toleration, but what if most people are not cultural relativists, and believe fervently in their right to specific lands at the expense of other peoples? White does not think historiography or perhaps any moral system can provide an answer. Is he right? This rejoinder argues that the communicative rationality implicit in the human sciences does provide norms about the moral use of history because it institutionalizes an intersubjectivity in which the use of the past is governed by norms of impartiality and fair-mindedness, and protocols of evidence based on honest research. Max Weber, equally influenced by Nietzsche, developed an alternative vision of teaching and research that is still relevant today. Little did I imagine, on October 13, 1995, when I sat on the floor in a crowded seminar room in Dwinelle Hall at the University of California at Berkeley, that one day I would be crossing swords on these pages with the guest speaker, Hayden White. He was, and remains, after all, the most influential critic of the discipline of history over the past forty years, a thinker whose dissections of its conceits, as elegant as they are erudite, have forced historians to reflect critically on what they do. If they have often responded defensively, literary scholars and philosophers have welcomed his apparent skepticism, a pattern of reaction that recurred with his talk, "The First Historical Event: A Rhetorical Exercise," hosted by the Department of Rhetoric. While we few interlopers from the Department of History squirmed uncomfortably, the sophisticated graduate students in comparative literature and rhetoric chortled as they learned that historians believed they "find" the past ready-made in the archives. Had we not heard the news that reality, past and present, was a "construction"? It is fascinating to learn what colleagues down the corridor really think of what you do. The disci-1. I thank Neil Levi and Geoffrey Brahm Levey for critical comments on an earlier draft.
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