Past in the Making: Historical Revisionism in Central Europe After 1989

Published by Central European University Press 2008

Past in the Making

Historical Revisionism in Central Europe After 1989

Edited by: Michal Kopeček

https://doi.org/10.1515/9786155211423

Overview
Contents

About this book

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.

Author / Editor information

Kopeček Michal :

Michal Kopeček is Research Fellow at the Institute of Contemporary History, Prague.

Reviews

"'Far from being restricted to a small group of 'deniers', historical revisionism seems to feature strongly in the public historical discourses of many countries and regions nowadays': states the editor of this publication Michal Kopecek. Especially central and eastern Europe has a long-time experience with this concept and its changes. The various tendencies appearing (or enduring) after the 1989, are only giving new meanings to this notion. The publication is based on the conviction that the problem of revisionism in post-communist countries is a research subject that deserves a proper analysis. Although written mainly as case studies, most of the articles are proving the striking resemblances in the historiographic developments in post-communist European countries."

"Historical revisionism has a number of different meanings. In this context the term provides a peg for discussing a variety of reinterpretations of tha past among professional historians and politicians, and in a more general collective memory. A major merit of the book is its demonstration of the extent to which re-evaluations of history are bound up with changes in politics and society"

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Preface Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Historiographic Revision and Revisionism Aviezer Tucker Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
From Revisionism to “Revisionism” Legal Limits to Historical Interpretation Vladimir Petrović Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	17
The Holocaustizing of the Transfer-Discourse” Historical Revisionism or Old Wine in New Bottles? Eva Hahn and Hans Henning Hahn Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	39
The Anti-Fascist Myth of the German Democratic Republic and Its Decline after 1989 Ingo Loose Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	59
In Search of “National Memory” The Politics of History, Nostalgia and the Historiography of Communism in the Czech Republic and East Central Europe Michal Kopeček Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	75
The Czechoslovak Legionary Tradition and the Battle Against the “Beneš Doctrine” in Czech Historiography The Case of General Rudolf Medek (1890–1940) Katya A. M. Kocourek Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	97
Begetting & Remembering Creating a Slovak Collective Memory in the Post-Communist World Owen V. Johnson Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	129
The Many Moralists and the Few Communists Approaching Morality and Politics in Post-Communist Hungary Ferenc Laczó Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	145
The Revisions of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution András Mink Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	169
Historians Facing Politics of History. The Case of Poland Rafał Stobiecki Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	179
Revisiting the Great Famine of 1932–1933 Politics of Memory and Public Consciousness (Ukraine after 1991) Georgiy Kasianov Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	197
The Struggle for Official Recognition of ‘Displaced’ Group Memories in Post-Soviet Estonia Meike Wulf Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	221
About the Authors Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	247
Name Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	251
Subject Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	259

Language: English
Publisher: Central European University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 274
Keywords: Central and Eastern Europe; Historiography; Memory politics; Political studies; Post-communism

eBook

Published: January 1, 2008
ISBN: 9786155211423