Reckoning with Pinochet: The Memory Question in Democratic Chile, 1989–2006

Steve J. Stern

Published by Duke University Press 2010

Reckoning with Pinochet

The Memory Question in Democratic Chile, 1989–2006

Steve J. Stern
Edited by: Walter D. Mignolo , Irene Silverblatt and Sonia Saldívar-Hull

Volume 3 in the series Latin America otherwise : languages, empires, nations

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780822391777

Overview
Contents

About this book

The first comprehensive account of how Chile came to terms with General Augusto Pinochets legacy of human rights atrocities.

Author / Editor information

Steve J. Stern is the Alberto Flores Galindo Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He is the author of books including Battling for Hearts and Minds: Memory Struggles in Pinochet’s Chile, 1973–1988, winner of the Bolton-Johnson Prize (the Conference on Latin American History), and Remembering Pinochet’s Chile: On the Eve of London 1998. Both books received Honorable Mention, Bryce Wood Book Award (Latin American Studies Association). Both are also published by Duke University Press.

Reviews

“In this well-researched book, Stern covers the broad swath of history from the end of the Pinochet regime to Pinochet’s condemnation by the international community to Chile’s leadership under Bachelet. . . . [T]he book’s greatest strength is its elucidation of symbolic acknowledgment as a form of memory politics by both the state and local community. . . . Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above.” - R. L. Bowman, Choice

“With this book, Stern has completed a monumental trilogy, begun with Remembering Pinochet’s Chile (2004) and continued in Battling for Hearts and Minds (2006). . . . Perhaps Stern’s greatest achievement lies in maintaining a human perspective: there are many personal testimonies throughout these pages that complement, represent, and at times contradict or qualify his judgments. . . . In the end, this is a story about the deepest questions, and Stern never resorts to facile shock-tactics, never plays tricks on the reader, and always insists that something very big and deeply human is at stake.” - Paul Grant, Books and Culture

“Reckoning with Pinochet is an elegantly written, comprehensive account of Chile’s memory struggle during its transition to democracy. The book, and the trilogy of which it is a part, should be required reading for all students of Latin America who are interested in contemporary political and historical issues, particularly in processes of authoritarian backlash, democratization, and memory construction. Steve Stern is a master storyteller who manages to combine rigorous historical analysis with firsthand knowledge of Chile that is so detailed the context is palpable.” - Michael J. Lazzara, A Contracorriente

“Stern’s now-completed trilogy is a remarkably varied, multi-disciplinary, and well-researched study of the Chilean memory question and recent history in general. It provides a number of insightful frameworks to describe the relationships between history, memory, and politics in the process of democratic reconstruction. By virtue of its clear explanations and graceful prose, it is well-suited for any readers interested in Chile or general issues of human rights and memory studies. It lays the foundation for more work in cultural and literary studies, and will surely remain one of the most important works in the field for years to come.” - Patrick Blaine, e-misférica

“Reckoning with Pinochet is the best account of the trajectory of historical memory under Chile’s restored democracy from 1989 until 2006, and a revealing window on that era and its democratic transition. It reflects Steve J. Stern’s comprehensive knowledge of this period in Chile’s history and his empathetic sensibility, which enables him to see the issues he discusses through the eyes even of people with whom he profoundly disagrees.”—Peter Winn, editor of Victims of the Chilean Miracle: Workers and Neoliberalism in the Pinochet Era, 1973–2002

“This is a master work on what has proved to be one of the late twentieth century’s key events: Chile’s transition from General Pinochet’s brutal rule to a growing promise of democracy. But it is much more. Steve J. Stern not only convincingly argues that the transition was made possible by a fierce battle over the ‘memory’ of Pinochet’s rule and a ‘healthier, accountable democracy,’ but concludes by placing this struggle in a profound global context: in the early 1970s many nations began a historic shift toward human rights concerns and democracy, a shift on which Chile’s experience has had a major, and reciprocal, influence.”—Walter LaFeber, Andrew H. and James S. Tisch Distinguished University Professor Emeritus, Cornell University

“Reckoning with Pinochet is an essential work on post-dictatorship Chile and on the implications of the Chilean case for the global struggle for human rights.”

-- Brian Loveman Hispanic American Historical Review

“In terms of disciplinarity, the book reaches beyond Stern's own background as a historian, in a valuable and largely successful effort to break new ground in offering a social history of memory. Political scientists, cultural and memory studies specialists and ethnographers will each find echoes of their own preoccupations here. . . . Stern ranges widely and confidently through high politics, grassroots organising, cultural history, legal change and even popular song and theatre to make his point about the need for a comprehensive history of memory to be truly social. It is not necessary to agree with all aspects of his interpretive framework to be duly impressed with the scope of the achievement.”

-- Cath Collins Journal of Latin American Studies

“This well-written, superbly researched, and important book is a ‘must read’ not only for Latin American specialists but also for all those interested in how historical memory affects the way any nation and its peoples come to understand and to deal with their past.”

-- Richard J. Walter American Historical Review

“Reckoning with Pinochet is an elegantly written, comprehensive account of Chile’s memory struggle during its transition to democracy. The book, and the trilogy of which it is a part, should be required reading for all students of Latin America who are interested in contemporary political and historical issues, particularly in processes of authoritarian backlash, democratization, and memory construction. Steve Stern is a master storyteller who manages to combine rigorous historical analysis with firsthand knowledge of Chile that is so detailed the context is palpable.”

-- Michael J. Lazzara A Contracorriente

“In this well-researched book, Stern covers the broad swath of history from the end of the Pinochet regime to Pinochet’s condemnation by the international community to Chile’s leadership under Bachelet. . . . [T]he book’s greatest strength is its elucidation of symbolic acknowledgment as a form of memory politics by both the state and local community. . . . Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above.”

-- R. L. Bowman Choice

“Stern’s now-completed trilogy is a remarkably varied, multi-disciplinary, and well-researched study of the Chilean memory question and recent history in general. It provides a number of insightful frameworks to describe the relationships between history, memory, and politics in the process of democratic reconstruction. By virtue of its clear explanations and graceful prose, it is well-suited for any readers interested in Chile or general issues of human rights and memory studies. It lays the foundation for more work in cultural and literary studies, and will surely remain one of the most important works in the field for years to come.”

-- Patrick Blaine e-misférica

“With this book, Stern has completed a monumental trilogy, begun with Remembering Pinochet’s Chile (2004) and continued in Battling for Hearts and Minds (2006). . . . Perhaps Stern’s greatest achievement lies in maintaining a human perspective: there are many personal testimonies throughout these pages that complement, represent, and at times contradict or qualify his judgments. . . . In the end, this is a story about the deepest questions, and Stern never resorts to facile shock-tactics, never plays tricks on the reader, and always insists that something very big and deeply human is at stake.”

-- Paul Grant Books & Culture

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Publicly Available Download PDF	xiii
MAPS Publicly Available Download PDF	xviii
Introduction to the Trilogy The Memory Box of Pinochet’s Chile Publicly Available Download PDF	xxi
Introduction to Book Three Reckoning with Pinochet Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Chapter 1 The Perils of Truth Opening the Memory Box, 1989–1990 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	13
AFTERWORD ‘‘My Dear President’’ Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	61
Chapter 2 Toward Memory Impasse? The Truth Commission Moment, 1990–1991 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	65
AFTERWORD The Futility of History? Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	99
Chapter 3 The Circle of Truth, Justice, and Force, 1990–1994 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	106
AFTERWORD The Sound of Tick-Tock Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	136
Chapter 4 Between Prudence and Convulsion Memory, Triumphalism, and Disenchantment, 1994–1997 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	143
AFTERWORD The Joys of ‘‘Not Too Much’’ Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	200
Chapter 5 The Turn: Consequences of 1998 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	211
AFTERWORD Covering History with History? The Making of Silence Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	265
Chapter 6 Memory as Unfinished Work New Reckonings, 2002–2006 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	273
AFTERWORD Unsettled Monuments The Struggle for Londres 38 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	314
Chapter 7 Reframing Democratic Transition Toward the Memory Paradox of Bachelet’s Chile Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	324
AFTERWORD The Curious Burial of Augusto Pinochet Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	348
Conclusion: Reckoning with Pinochet Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	357
ABBREVIATIONS USED IN NOTES AND ESSAY ON SOURCES Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	387
NOTES Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	389
ESSAY ON SOURCES Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	503
INDEX Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	525

Language: English
Publisher: Duke University Press
Pages
- Main content: 584
Illustrations
- Other: 29 photographs, 1 table, 2 maps

eBook

Published: April 30, 2010
ISBN: 9780822391777