The Battle for the Past

This book is about the dramatic changes that the world is witnessing in its attitude toward the past. For the first time in many generations, ordinary citizens around the globe have burst into disputes about history that were previously the province of politicians and scholars. These people are demolishing monuments, creating new myths for themselves and restoring the memory of names long forgotten. Everyone needs a past to build on, and people are no longer satisfied with history written without their participation. Politicians sense this demand and are experimenting with the past themselves—making it an instrument of political conflict and sacrificing it to their interests. The author of this study brings to bear many examples of America’s “culture wars,” a phenomenon that offers very interesting comparisons with Europe’s “memory wars” and recent Russian conflicts over the past.