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In "The Haunting Past," French historian Henry Rousso discusses
the varied and controversial treatments of French collaboration
with the Nazis during the Vichy regime, focusing specifically on
the roles played by historians, and history itself, in the postwar
trials of accused collaborators.While discussion of Nazi
collaboration was mostly suppressed in the years immediately
following World War II, recent changes in public sentiment paved
the way for formal trials of former Vichy officials charged with
collaborating with Nazi Germany. In a series of pointed interviews
conducted by journalist Philippe Petit, Rousso considers events of
the recent past--especially the emotionally charged Papon trial in
France and the revelations that have come to light with the opening
of Communist archives.While Rousso was one of the historians called
to testify at a number of sensational political trials, he was also
one of the few who chose not to, arguing that history is constantly
changing and being rewritten and therefore should not be taken into
consideration as judicial evidence. Throughout the course of these
trials, the public repeatedly claimed that historians had failed to
account for the crimes of Vichy and that the time had come for the
truth to be known and justice delivered. Rousso, on the other hand,
argued against the combination of history and justice, claiming
that justice is a matter of ethics or law, while history should be
free from judgment."The Haunting Past" explores the methods
historians employ to understand and frame varying perspectives on
knowledge and truth, the ways an open society can or should manage
information, and the moral and civic responsibilities of the
intellectual elite in a democracy. In light of the sensational part
often played by the modern media, this is a timely critique of
institutions and of the relationship among politics, the courts,
and the press. Rousso raises profound questions regarding the way
true knowledge of the recent past is attained, untangling the roles
of the historians, judges, and journalists empowered by society to
bring forth historical truth and communicate it to the public.
From the Liberation purges to the Barbie trial, France has
struggled with the memory of the Vichy experience: a memory of
defeat, occupation, and repression. In this provocative study,
Henry Rousso examines how this proud nation--a nation where reality
and myth commingle to confound understanding--has dealt with "les
années noires." Specifally, he studies what the French
have chosen to remember and what have chosen to conceal.
This book brings together world-renowned scholars from all over
Europe to analyse how successive Europes have been constructed in
the wake of the key conflicts of the period: the Cold War and the
two World Wars. By regressively tracing Europe's path back to these
pivotal moments as part of a unique methodology, Europe's Postwar
Periods - 1989, 1945, 1918 reveals the defining characteristics of
these postwar periods and integrates the changes that followed 1989
into a more substantial historical perspective. The author team
address the crucial themes in recent European history on a
chapter-by-chapter basis that gives comprehensive coverage to the
whole of the European region for topics such as borders, states,
empires, democracy, justice, markets and futures. The volume
highlights the fact that Europe was made less by wars than is
commonly thought, and more by the nature of the settlements -
international, national, political, economic and social - that
followed the two World Wars and the Cold War. It is an important,
innovative text for all students and scholars of 20th-century
European history.
The writing of recent history tends to be deeply marked by
conflict, by personal and collective struggles rooted in horrific
traumas and bitter controversies. Frequently, today's historians
can find themselves researching the same events that they
themselves lived through. This book reflects on the concept and
practices of what is called "contemporary history," a history of
the present time, and identifies special tensions in the field
between knowledge and experience, distance and proximity, and
objectivity and subjectivity. Henry Rousso addresses the rise of
contemporary history and the relations of present-day societies to
their past, especially their legacies of political violence.
Focusing on France, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United
States, he shows that for contemporary historians, the recent past
has become a problem to be solved. No longer unfolding as a series
of traditions to be respected or a set of knowledge to be
transmitted and built upon, history today is treated as a constant
act of mourning or memory, an attempt to atone. Historians must
also negotiate with strife within this field, as older scholars who
may have lived through events clash with younger historians who
also claim to understand the experiences. Ultimately, The Latest
Catastrophe shows how historians, at times against their will, have
themselves become actors in a history still being made.
In this volume Europe's leading modern historians offer new
insights into two totalitarian regimes of the twentieth century
that have profoundly affected world history--Nazi Germany and the
Stalinist Soviet Union. Until now historians have paid more
attention to the similarities between these two regimes than to
their differences. "Stalinism and Nazism" explores the difficult
relationship between the history and memory of the traumas
inflicted by Nazi and Soviet occupation in several Eastern European
countries in the twentieth century. The first part of the volume
explores the origins, nature, and organization of Hitler's and
Stalin's dictatorial power, the manipulation of violence by the
state systems, and the comparative power of the dictator's personal
will and the encompassing totalitarian system. The second part
examines the legacies of the Nazi and Stalinist regimes in Eastern
European countries that experienced both. "Stalinism and Nazism"
features the latest critical perspectives on two of the most
influential and deadly political regimes in modern history.
This book brings together world-renowned scholars from all over
Europe to analyse how successive Europes have been constructed in
the wake of the key conflicts of the period: the Cold War and the
two World Wars. By regressively tracing Europe's path back to these
pivotal moments as part of a unique methodology, Europe's Postwar
Periods - 1989, 1945, 1918 reveals the defining characteristics of
these postwar periods and integrates the changes that followed 1989
into a more substantial historical perspective. The author team
address the crucial themes in recent European history on a
chapter-by-chapter basis that gives comprehensive coverage to the
whole of the European region for topics such as borders, states,
empires, democracy, justice, markets and futures. The volume
highlights the fact that Europe was made less by wars than is
commonly thought, and more by the nature of the settlements -
international, national, political, economic and social - that
followed the two World Wars and the Cold War. It is an important,
innovative text for all students and scholars of 20th-century
European history.
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