Memory and Social Movements in Modern and Contemporary History
Description
Reflecting the growing interest of historians in memory studies, this edited collection examines the relationship between memory and global social movements from 1848 to the present. For a long time, there has been little attempt by historians to consider memory and social activism in an integrated, systematic, and comparative way. However, in recent years, scholars have demonstrated that social movements rely on collective memories to assert claims, mobilize supporters, and legitimize their political visions, while also helping to further shape collective memories. This book delves into the synergies between memory studies and social movements, exploring how social movements have been constructing and creating memories of their own activity, how specific landscapes of memory have influenced social movements, and how activists have used memory as a cultural resource to further their own goals and ambitions. The case studies presented cover a range of different types of political activism, including the fights for workers', gay, feminist, and pacifist rights, as well as ecological, urban, and far-right movements across the globe, portraying the diverse interrelations that exist between social movements and collective memory.
Reviews / Votes
"This volume is an innovative edited collection that explores the interrelation between memory and social movements across various contexts and time periods. . The interdisciplinary nature of the collection enhances both its breadth and relevance, while the specific case studies offer substantive insights into the diverse roles memory plays in activism. Ultimately, this volume amplifies the potential of memory to serve as both a resource for protest and a way of cultural preservation ... ." (Fanga Agbor Martial, International Review of Social History, Vol. 70 (2), October, 2025)
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Persons
Stefan Berger is Professor of Social History and Director of the Institute for Social Movements at Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Germany, as well as Honorary Professor at Cardiff University, UK. He is also Executive Chair of the Foundation History of the Ruhr. He has published widely on the comparative history of social movements, in particular labour movements as well as national(ist) movements, the history of nationalism and national identity, deindustrialisation studies, and memory studies.
Christian Koller is Director of the Swiss Social Archives (Zurich), Adjunct Professor of Modern History at the University of Zurich, and part-time Lecturer in Social History at the Swiss Open University. He has published widely on labour history, the history of racism and nationalism, historical semantics, sports history, the history of colonial armies, the First World War, urban history and in the field of archival and library sciences.
Content
Chapter 1. Introduction; Stefan Berger and Christian Koller.- Chapter 2. Framing the Collective Memory: The Politics of Mobilisations against Hydropower Projects in Maharashtra, India, 1980-2004; Arnab Roy Chowdhury.- Chapter 3. Seeds as a Site for Humanistic Inquiry: Mapping Memory and Movement through 'Sovereign Forest'; Jawhar Cholakkathodi.- Chapter 4. Constructing the History of Working-Class Neighbourhoods: Communicative and Cognitive Referencing to the Past in Conflicts over Urban Redevelopment in 1970s and 1980s West-German Cities; Sebastian Haumann.- Chapter 5. Memory of Serfdom and the Peasant Rebellion in Lesko Poviat; Michal Rauszer.- Chapter 6. Revolutionary Memory and the Genesis of the State: A Failed 'Dress Rehearsal' and a Changed Script in Polish Socialist Movements 1905-1920; Wiktor Marzec.- Chapter 7. Martyrs of the Labour Movement? Commemoration of Protest Casualties in Switzerland; Christian Koller.- Chapter 8. Negotiating the Past: 2009's General Strike in theFrench Caribbean and the Colonial Past; Christian Jacobs.- Chapter 9. Mind the Gap: Gay Activism and the Remembrance of Gay Victims at the Dachau Memorial Site; Gabriele Fischer & Katharina Ruhland.- Chapter 10. Imoinda in Berlin: Feminists and the Cultural Memory of Slavery After 1848; Sophie van den Elzen.- Chapter 11. Remembering Tolstoyans: The Soviet/Russian Independent Peace Movement in Search of Russian Historical Tradition of Pacifism; Irina A. Gordeeva.- Chapter 12. Spain, Munich, Auschwitz: The Role of Historical Analogies in the Protest Movements in Europe against the War in Bosnia and Herzegovina, 1992-1995; Nicolas Philipp Moll.- Chapter 13. History, Memory and the Populist Right in Germany from the Second World War to the Present Day; Stefan Berger.
