History and Popular Memory: The Power of Story in Moments of Crisis - Rilegato

Cohen, Paul A.

Rilegato

ISBN 10: 0231166362 ISBN 13: 9780231166362

Casa editrice: Columbia Univ Pr, 2014

Riassunto

When people experience a traumatic event, such as war or the threat of annihilation, they often turn to history for stories that promise a positive outcome to their suffering. During World War II, the French took comfort in the story of Joan of Arc and her heroic efforts to rid France of foreign occupation. To bring the Joan narrative more into line with current circumstances, however, popular retellings modified the original story so that what people believed took place in the past was often quite different from what actually occurred.

Paul A. Cohen identifies this interplay between story and history as a worldwide phenomenon, found in countries of radically different cultural, religious, and social character. He focuses here on Serbia, Israel, China, France, the Soviet Union, and Great Britain, all of which experienced severe crises in the twentieth century and, in response, appropriated age-old historical narratives that resonated with what was happening in the present to serve a unifying, restorative purpose.

A central theme in the book is the distinction between popular memory and history. Although vitally important to historians, this distinction is routinely blurred in people's minds, and the historian's truth often cannot compete with the power of a compelling story from the past, even when it has been seriously distorted by myth or political manipulation. Cohen concludes by suggesting that the patterns of interaction he probes, given their near universality, may well be rooted in certain human propensities that transcend cultural difference.

Su questo libro

L'autore:

Paul A. Cohen is Edith Stix Wasserman Professor of Asian Studies and History Emeritus at Wellesley College and a long-time associate of the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies at Harvard University. His books include Discovering History in China: American Historical Writing on the Recent Chinese Past and the award-winning History in Three Keys: The Boxers as Event, Experience, and Myth.

Product Description:

xvii 279p hardback, small mark to dustjacket, a fresh copy, clean and firm, excellent, like new

Su questa edizione

• Editore: Columbia Univ Pr
• Data di pubblicazione: 2014
• ISBN 10: 0231166362
• ISBN 13: 9780231166362
• Rilegatura: Copertina rigida
• Numero di pagine: 279