Genocide and the Politics of Memory: Studying Death to Preserve Life

Genocide and the Politics of Memory: Studying Death to Preserve Life
ISBN-10
0807862053
ISBN-13
9780807862056
Category
Political Science
Pages
256
Language
English
Published
2000-11-09
Publisher
Univ of North Carolina Press
Author
Herbert Hirsch

Description

More than sixty million people have been victims of genocide in the twentieth century alone, including recent casualties in Bosnia and Rwanda. Herbert Hirsch studies repetitions of large-scale human violence in order to ascertain why people in every historical epoch seem so willing to kill each other. He argues that the primal passions unleashed in the cause of genocide are tied to the manipulation of memory for political purposes. According to Hirsch, leaders often invoke or create memories of real or fictitious past injustices to motivate their followers to kill for political gain or other reasons. Generations pass on their particular versions of events, which then become history. If we understand how cultural memory is created, Hirsch says, we may then begin to understand how and why episodes of mass murder occur and will be able to act to prevent them. In order to revise the politics of memory, Hirsch proposes essential reforms in both the modern political state and in systems of education.

Other editions

Similar books