In praise of forgetting : historical memory and its ironies

Resource Information

The work In praise of forgetting : historical memory and its ironies represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in Bates College. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Language Material, Books.

Label

In praise of forgetting : historical memory and its ironies

Title remainder

historical memory and its ironies

Statement of responsibility

David Rieff

Creator

• Rieff, David,
• Rieff, David,

Author

• Rieff, David,
• Rieff, David,

Subject

• History -- Philosophy
• Collective memory -- Philosophy
• History -- Philosophy
• Collective memory -- Philosophy
• Ethics
• Ethics

Language

eng

Summary

"The conventional wisdom about historical memory is summed up in George Santayana’s celebrated phrase, zThose who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.y Today, the consensus that it is moral to remember, immoral to forget, is nearly absolute. And yet is this right? David Rieff, an independent writer who has reported on bloody conflicts in Africa, the Balkans, and Central Asia, insists that things are not so simple. He poses hard questions about whether remembrance ever truly has, or indeed ever could, zinoculatey the present against repeating the crimes of the past. He argues that rubbing raw historical wounds—whether self-inflicted or imposed by outside forces—neither remedies injustice nor confers reconciliation. If he is right, then historical memory is not a moral imperative but rather a moral option—sometimes called for, sometimes not. Collective remembrance can be toxic. Sometimes, Rieff concludes, it may be more moral to forget. Ranging widely across some of the defining conflicts of modern times—the Irish Troubles and the Easter Uprising of 1916, the white settlement of Australia, the American Civil War, the Balkan wars, the Holocaust, and 9/11—Rieff presents a pellucid examination of the uses and abuses of historical memory. His contentious, brilliant, and elegant essay is an indispensable work of moral philosophy." -- publisher

Cataloging source

YDXCP

Index

no index present

Literary form

non fiction