The Palgrave Handbook of State-Sponsored History After 1945

1. Schools, Curricula and Textbooks

   1. Teaching History Under Dictatorship: The Politics of Textbooks and the Legitimation of Authority in Mobutu’s Zaire

      • Denise Bentrovato

      Pages 307-321

   2. The “National Dream” to Cultural Mosaic: State-Sponsored History in Canadian Education

      • Lynn Lemisko, Kurt Clausen

      Pages 323-338

   3. China’s History School Curricula and Textbook Reform in East Asian Context

      • Gotelind Müller

      Pages 339-352

   4. Teaching History in Israel–Palestine

      • Achim Rohde

      Pages 353-370

2. Museums and Musealisation

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 371-371

      PDF

   2. History Museums

      • Ilaria Porciani

      Pages 373-397

   3. “State-Supported History” at the Local Level: Ostdeutsche Heimatstuben and Expellee Museums in West Germany

      • Cornelia Eisler

      Pages 399-413

   4. State Agency and the Definition of Historical Events: The Case of the Museo de La Memoria Y Los Derechos Humanos in Santiago, Chile

      • Patrizia Violi

      Pages 415-430

   5. History Wars in Germany and Australia: National Museums and the Relegitimisation of Nationhood

      • Christian Wicke, Ben Wellings

      Pages 431-445

3. Memorials, Monuments and Heritage

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 447-447

      PDF

   2. Memorials and State-Sponsored History

      • Shanti Sumartojo

      Pages 449-476

   3. Spaces of Nationhood and Contested Soviet War Monuments in Poland: The Warsaw Monument to the Brotherhood in Arms

      • Ewa Ochman

      Pages 477-493

   4. Heritage Statecraft: Transcending Methodological Nationalism in the Russian Federation

      • Gertjan Plets

      Pages 495-509

4. Courts, Tribunals and Judicial History

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 511-511

      PDF

   2. The State, the Courts, and the Lessons of History: An Overview, with Reference to Some Emblematic Cases

      • Richard J. Golsan

      Pages 513-534

   3. The Historian’s Trial: John Demjanjuk and the Prosecution of Atrocity

      • Lawrence Douglas

      Pages 535-549

   4. Germany Versus Germany: Resistance Against Hitler, Postwar Judiciary and the 1952 Remer Case

      • Vladimir Petrović

      Pages 551-565

   5. Historical Testimony for the Government in US v. Philip Morris, et al.

      • Ramses Delafontaine

      Pages 567-581

   6. A One-Sided Coin: A Critical Analysis of the Legal Accounts of the Cypriot Conflicts

      • Nasia Hadjigeorgiou

      Pages 583-595

5. Truth Commissions and Commissioned History

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 597-597

      PDF

This handbook provides the first systematic integrated analysis of the role that states or state actors play in the construction of history and public memory after 1945. The book focuses on many different forms of state-sponsored history, including memory laws, monuments and memorials, state-archives, science policies, history in schools, truth commissions, historical expert commissions, the use of history in courts and tribunals etc. The handbook contributes to the study of history and public memory by combining elements of state-focused research in separate fields of study. By looking at the state’s memorialising capacities the book introduces an analytical perspective that is not often found in classical studies of the state. The handbook has a broad geographical focus and analyses cases from different regions around the world. The volume mainly tackles democratic contexts, although dictatorial regimes are not excluded.   

• State Sponsored History
• Propaganda
• Postwar History
• Post-1945
• Government History
• Historian's Free Expression
• French Memory Laws
• Post-Communist Lithuania
• European Court of Human Rights
• Archives
• Tadhana Project
• Institute of National Remembrance in Poland
• History museums

“The Palgrave Handbook of State-Sponsored History after 1945 offers to the reader a nuanced explanation of the operationality of state-sponsored history, rather than a detailed analysis of the political and social conditions in which these mechanisms are established. Thus, and despite being destined for a specialized audience in fields such as history, memory studies … its descriptive narratives make it approachable and facilitate navigating through the theories and concepts identified throughout the book and understanding the tight links between them.” (Cira Palli-Aspero, International Studies Review, August 28, 2018)

• Department of History, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium

  Berber Bevernage

• CEGESOMA (Belgian State Archives), Brussels, Belgium

  Nico Wouters

Berber Bevernage is Assistant Professor of Historical Theory at Ghent University, Belgium. His research focuses on the dissemination, attestation and contestation of historical discourse and historical culture in post-conflict situations. He has published in journals such as History and Theory, Rethinking History, Memory Studies, Social History and History Workshop Journal.

Nico Wouters is Director of the Belgian Centre for War and Society (CegeSoma, State Archives), Guest Professor at Ghent University, Belgium, and Honorary Research Fellow at Kent University, UK. His research interests include the Second World War, (state-sponsored) politics of memory, comparative history and oral history.

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