Past in the making : recent history revisions and historical revisionism in Central Europe after 1989 / edited by Michal Kopecek.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Kopecek, Michal.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Europe, Central--History--20th century.

Europe, Central.

Europe, Central--History--20th century--Historiography.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (x, 264 pages) : illustrations; digital, PDF file(s).

Place of Publication:

Budapest ; New York : Central European University Press, 2007.

Language Note:

English

System Details:

text file

Summary:

Historical revisionism, far from being restricted to small groups of ‘negationists,’ has galvanized debates in the realm of recent history. The studies in this book range from general accounts of the background of recent historical revisionism to focused analyses of particular debates or social-cultural phenomena in individual Central European countries, from Germany to Ukraine and Estonia. Where is the borderline between legitimate re-examination of historical interpretations and attempts to rewrite history in a politically motivated way that downgrades or denies essential historical facts? How do the traditional ‘national historical narratives’ react to the ‘spill-over’ of international and political controversies into their ‘sphere of influence’? Technological progress, along with the overall social and cultural decentralization shatters the old hierarchies of academic historical knowledge under the banner of culture of memory, and breeds an unequalled democratization in historical representation. This book offers a unique approach based on the provocative and instigating intersection of scholarly research, its political appropriations, and social reflection from a representative sample of Central and East European countries.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Preface

Historiographic Revision and Revisionism

From Revisionism to “Revisionism” Legal Limits to Historical Interpretation

The Holocaustizing of the Transfer-Discourse” Historical Revisionism or Old Wine in New Bottles?

The Anti-Fascist Myth of the German Democratic Republic and Its Decline after 1989

In Search of “National Memory” The Politics of History, Nostalgia and the Historiography of Communism in the Czech Republic and East Central Europe

The Czechoslovak Legionary Tradition and the Battle Against the “Beneš Doctrine” in Czech Historiography The Case of General Rudolf Medek (1890–1940)

Begetting & Remembering Creating a Slovak Collective Memory in the Post-Communist World

The Many Moralists and the Few Communists Approaching Morality and Politics in Post-Communist Hungary

The Revisions of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution

Historians Facing Politics of History. The Case of Poland

Revisiting the Great Famine of 1932–1933 Politics of Memory and Public Consciousness (Ukraine after 1991)

The Struggle for Official Recognition of ‘Displaced’ Group Memories in Post-Soviet Estonia

About the Authors

Name Index

Subject Index

Notes:

A collection of papers from the international workshop, held in Prague in Oct. 2006.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-003-72124-9

1-4356-1612-X

615-5211-42-6

2-8218-1523-9

9781003721246

OCLC:

187303661