The

Collective Memory Reader

Edited by
JEFFREY K. OLICK VERED VINITZKY-SEROUSSI DANIEL LEVY

OXFORD
UNIVERSITY 20II PRESS

Contents

Preface and Acknowledgments Introduction Jeffrey K. Olick, Vered Vinitzky-Seroussi, and Daniel Levy

xi 3

Part I. Precursors and Classics EDMUND BURKE,

63

from Reflections on the Revolution in France from Democracy in America from "On the Uses and Disadvantages

65 68 73 80 84 89 92 99 104 110 113 116 122 127 131

ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE, FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE,

of History for Life"

ERNEST RENAN,

from "What Is a Nation?" from Totem and Taboo: Resemblances between the

SIGMUND FREUD,

Psychic Lives of Savages and Neurotics and Moses and Monotheism

KARL MARX,

from "The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte" from "The Sociological Problem of Generations"

KARL MANNHEIM,

WALTER BENJAMIN,

from "The Storyteller" and "Theses on the Philosophy of History" ERNST GOMBRICH, from Aby Warburg: An Intellectual Biography W. ADORNO, from "Valry Proust Museum" and "In Eichendorff" from Mind in Society from Remembering: A Study in Experimental Memory of
LEV VYGOTSKY, FREDERIC BARTLETT,

THEODOR

and Social Psychology

CARL BECKER,

from "Everyman His Own Historian" from "The Nature of the Past" from Social Process

GEORGE HERBERT MEAD,

CHARLES HORTON COOLEY,

Vi

CONTENTS

MILE DURKHEIM,

from The Elementary Forms of Religious Life from The Collective Memory

136 139

MAURICE HALBWACHS, MARC BLOCH,

from "Mmoire collective, tradition et coutume: propos d'un livre rcent" ["Collective Memory, Custom, and Tradition: About a Recent Book"] from "Revue critique: M. Halbwachs Les cadres sociaux de la mmoire" ["Critical Review of M. Halbwachs Les cadres sociaux de la mmoire"] from The African Religions of Brazil: Toward a Sociology of the Interpenetration of Civilizations from The Living and the Dead: A Study of the Symbolic Life of Americans

150

CHARLES BLONDEL,

156 157 163 168 173

ROGER BASTIDE,

W. LLOYD WARNER,

E . E . EVANS-PRITCHARD,

from The Nuer: A Description of the Modes of Livelihood and Political Institutions of a Nilotic People from The Savage Mind

CLAUDE LVI-STRAUSS,

Part II. History, Memory, and Identity HANS-GEORG GADAMER EDWARD CASEY, PETER BURKE,

177

from Truth and Method

180 184 188 193 198 201

from Remembering: A Phenomenological Study

from "History as Social Memory" from "History, Memory, Identity"

ALLAN MEGILL,

ALON CONFINO, from

"Collective Memory and Cultural History: Problems of Method" from Zakhor: Jewish History and

YOSEF H A I M YERUSHALMI,

Jewish Memory
JAN A S S M A N N ,

from Moses the Egyptian: The Memory of Egypt in Western Monotheism and "Collective Memory and Cultural Identity" from Invitation to Sociology: A Humanistic Approach from "Social Memories: Steps towards a Sociology of the Past" K. OLICK, from "Collective Memory: The Two Cultures"

209 216 221 225

PETER BERGER,

EVIATAR ZERUBAVEL,

JEFFREY

ROBERT BELLAH, RICHARD MADSEN, WILLIAM M. SULLIVAN, A N N

and STEVEN M. TIPTON, from Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitment in American Life
SWIDLER, ANTHONY SMITH, YAEL ZERUBAVEL,

229 231 237

from The Ethnic Origins of Nations

from Recovered Roots: Collective Memory and the Making of Israeli National Tradition

CONTENTS BARRY SCHWARTZ,

VU

from Abraham Lincoln and the Forge of American Memory

242

Part III. Power, Politics, and Contestation MICHEL FOUCAULT,

249

from "Film in Popular Memory: An Interview with Michel Foucault" from "Popular Memory: Theory, Politics, Method"

252 254 261 265 269 271 275 279 283 287 291

POPULAR MEMORY GROUP,

RAPHAEL SAMUEL, JOHN BODNAR,

from Theatres of Memory

from Remaking America: Public Memory, Commemoration and Patriotism in the Twentieth Century ROY ROSENZWEIG and DAVID THELEN, from The Presence of the Past: Popular Uses of History in American Life
ERIC HOBSBAWM,

from "Introduction: Inventing Traditions"

TERENCE RANGER,

from "The Invention of Tradition Revisited: The Case of Colonial Africa" ORLANDO PATTERSON, from Slavery and Social Death: A Comparative Study
RICHARD SENNETT,

from "Disturbing Memories"

from "The Past in the Present versus the Present in the Past" GLADYS LANG and KURT LANG, from "Recognition and Renown: The Survival of Artistic Reputation"
MICHAEL SCHUDSON, LORI DUCHARME

and GARY ALAN FINE, from "The Construction of Nonpersonhood and Demonization: Commemorating the 'Traitorous' Reputation of Benedict Arnold" from "Finding Meaning in Memory: A Methodological Critique of Collective Memory Studies" from "The Past in the Present: Culture and the Transmission of Memory" from "Toward a Cultural Theory of Trauma"

296 300 304 307

WULF KANSTEINER,

RON EYERMAN,

JEFFREY ALEXANDER,

Part IV. Media and Modes of Transmission ANDR LEROI-GOURHAN, JACK GOODY,

311

from Gesture and Speech

314 321 325

from "Memory in Oral and Literate Traditions"

MERLIN DONALD,

from Origins of the Modern Mind: Three Stages in the Evolution of Culture and Cognition

Viii

CONTENTS

ALEIDA A S S M A N N , PAUL CONNERTON,

from "Canon and Archive" from How Societies Remember

334 338

HARALD WELZER, SABINE MOLLER, KAROLINE TSCHUGGNALL,

and TORSTEN KOCH, from "Opa war kein Nazi:" Nationalsozialismus und Holocaust im Familiengedchtnis [Grandpa Wasn't a Nazi: National Socialism and Holocaust in Family Memory]
OLAF JENSEN, MARIANNE H I R S C H ,

343 346 348 352 358 361 365 yji 375 378 382 388 394

from "The Generation of Postmemory" from "Tradition and Self in a Mediated World"

JOHN B . THOMPSON, GEORGE LIPSITZ,

from Time Passages: Collective Memory and American Popular Culture

BARBIE ZELIZER,

from "Why Memory's Work on Journalism Does Not Reflect Journalism's Work on Memory" and ELIHU K A T Z , from Media Events: The Live Broadcasting of History from "War Memorials: Identity Formations Survivors"

DANIEL DAYAN

REINHART KOSELLECK,

of the
JAMES E . YOUNG,

from At Memory's Edge: After-images of the Holocaust in Contemporary Art and Architecture from "Commemorating a Difficult Past: Yitzhak Rabin's Memorials" Its Historical Imagery and Architectural Entertainments

VERED VINITZKY-SEROUSSI,

M. CHRISTINE BOYER, from The City of Collective Memory:

DANILE H E R V I E U - L G E R , HARALD WEINRICH,

from Religion as a Chain of Memory

from Lethe: The Art and Critique of Forgetting

ROBIN WAGNER-PACIFICI,

from "Memories in the Making: The Shapes of Things That Went"

Part V. Memory, Justice, and the Contemporary Epoch EDWARD SHILS,

399

from Tradition from History as an Art of Memory from "Living in a Post-Traditional Society"

402 407 411 416 420 426 430

IAN HACKING, from "Memory Sciences, Memory Politics"

PATRICK HUTTON, ANTHONY GIDDENS, DAVID G R O S S ,

from Lost Time: On Remembering and Forgetting in Late Modern Culture

JAY WINTER, from Remembering War: The Great War between Memory and History in the Twentieth Century
ANDREAS H U Y S S E N ,

from "Present Pasts: Media, Politics, Amnesia"

CONTENTS PIERRE NORA,

ix

from "Reasons for the Current Upsurge in Memory" from "A Surfeit of Memory? Reflections on History,

437 442 446 452 458 465 468 471 473

CHARLES MAIER,

Melancholy, and Denial"

FRED DAVIS,

from Yearning for Yesterday: A Sociology of Nostalgia from "Nostalgia and Its Discontents"

SVETLANA BOYM,

MICHEL-ROLPH TROUILLOT,

from "Abortive Rituals: Historical Apologies in the Global Era" DANIEL LEVY and NATAN SZNAIDER, from "Memory Unbound: The Holocaust and the Formation of Cosmopolitan Memory"
MARK OSIEL,

from Mass Atrocity, Collective Memory, and the Law from The Ethics of Memory "Memory History Forgetting" from Oblivion from

AVISHAI MARGALIT, MARC AUG,

PAUL RICOEUR,

475

Index

481