Examining the role of memory in the transition from totalitarian to democratic systems, this book makes an important contribution to memory studies. It explores memory as a medium of and impediment to change, looking at memory's biological, cultural, narrative and socio-psychological dimensions.

In the past decade, the field of memory has been dramatically reconfigured. Global conditions have powerfully impacted on memory debates, and at the same time, claims to memory are negotiated globally. This is a fundamental shift, as until recently, the dynamics of memory production unfolded primarily within the bounds of the nation-state; coming to terms with the past was largely a national project. Under the impact of processes of globalization, this has changed fundamentally. Today it has become impossible to understand the trajectories of memory outside a global frame of reference. This book offers an innovative inroad into the various problematics of memory in a global age. It presents analytical categories to chart the terrain, and it supplies richly documented case studies that illustrate the complexities of contemporary ways of appropriating the past. Written from different cultural positions and from different disciplinary backgrounds, the collection of essays emphasizes the positionality of memory production as it is negotiated locally and globally.

While political systems may change comparatively quickly, the social and cultural processes of adaptation and transformation take considerably longer. This volume explores memory as both a medium of and an impediment to change, offering an inroad into the problems, mechanisms and patterns involved in the complex processes that accompany the transition from authoritarian to democratic structures. Written by authors from different cultural and disciplinary backgrounds, the essays chart the terrain and supply well-documented case studies to extend knowledge on the relationship between social and political memory and the transition process.

A significant contribution to memory studies and part of an emergent strand of work on global memory. This book offers important insights on topics relating to memory, globalization, international politics, international relations, Holocaust studies and media and communication studies.