Writing the History of Memory

How objective are our history books? In this most recent addition to the Writing History series, Writing the History of Memoryexamines the critical role that memory plays in the writing of history. This book is essential reading for any students wanting to understand how the past has been remembered. Memory is often thought to be the much more subjective form of history, but this book points to the many forms of memory that make up our interpretation of history. Museums, exhibitions, memorials and speeches are all forms of public history that this collection brings together and analyzes. Written by specialists in the field, Writing the History of Memoryexamines topics such as oral history, generational and collective memory. It provides a groundbreaking introduction into the application of memory theory by historians. Table of Contents Introduction / Memory and History in the Ancient World / The Uses of Memory in the Carolingian Era / History-writing on the Relationship between Politics and National Memory / Generation and Collective Memory: A Conceptual-Methodological Exploration / Memory as both Source and Subject of Study: The Transformations of Oral History' / Pierre Nora's Lieux de Memoire and the Links between Memory and Identity / Writing the History of Memorials and Memorial Practice / Writing the Museum / The 'Memoriography' of the Holocaust: Issues and Debates / On the Memory of Communisim in Central Europe

Stefan Berger is Professor of Social History and Director of the Institute of Social Movements and the House for the History of the Ruhr at the Ruhr University Bochum, Germany.Bill Niven is Professor of Contemporary German History at Nottingham Trent University, UK. He is author (with JKA Thomaneck) of Dividing and Uniting Germany (2000), and of Facing the Nazi Past (2001) and The Buchenwald Child (2007). He is also the editor of Germans as Victims and has published widely on many areas of post-1918 German history.