Book review: National Memories: Constructing Identity in Populist Times

Abstract

In 1949, George Orwell proclaimed in his dystopian novel, 1984, that “Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past” (p. 44). Almost three-quarters of a century later, the global trend of championing nationalism as the answer to twenty-first-century problems makes this quote resonate. Donald Trump’s nostalgic appeal to America’s past greatness, Vladimir Putin’s myth-making of Russian history, and Xi Jinping’s reinterpretation of China’s role during WWII highlight how political leaders have employed nationalist historical narratives in “top-down state efforts to control national memory” (p. xii). During this era of “new nationalism,” how do scholars from diverse disciplines define and analyse national memory? How do they frame the relationship between past, present, and future when examining how different countries (re) shape their collective memories? In National Memories: Constructing Identity in Populist Times, a multidisciplinary team of scholars explores “national memory in the hopes of addressing its powers and its dangers” (p. xii). National Memories attempts to spark conversation across disciplinary silos. Noting the “transcultural turn” (p. xi) in memory studies, the editors incorporate research on national memory and identity from Asia and Europe, in addition to including US-based studies. Roediger and Wertsch organize the volume into five sections; each contains four to five chapters and is prefaced by a brief introduction. Sections I and II, Historical Origins of National Memory and Populism in America and Case Studies of National Memory and Populism in America employ historical, ethnographic, and textual analysis to investigate large questions about when a nation begins, how forgetting is a critical component of nation building, and how competing narratives coexist as threads in the complex tapestry of national memory. Sections III and IV, Comparative Studies of National Memory and Populism from Around the World and Case Studies of National Memory and Populism from Around the World, document cross-cultural differences in collective memory. These sections use diverse methodologies to explore wide-ranging topics, such as historical charters, collective narcissism, implicit mnemonic devices within collective memories, national communities’ complicated emotions toward the past, and bottom-up resistance to top-down control. In the final section, Conceptual Frameworks for the Study of National Memory and Populism, the reader is invited to consider fundamental mechanisms and theories that undergird the formation of national memory. These include the efficacy of symbolic tools in mass coordination, the formation and propagation of memory in smaller social groups, the role of motivational and cognitive factors in facilitating memory formation, and the power of narratives in shaping national memory. 1184541 MSS0010.1177/17506980231184541Memory StudiesBook reviews book-review2023