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Memory and Nation Building
From Ancient Times to the Islamic State
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Publisher:
2018
Summary
Memory and Nation Building addresses the complex topic of collective memory, first described by sociologist Maurice Halbwachs in the first half of the 20th century. Author Michael Galaty argues that the first states appropriated traditional collective memory systems in order to form. With this in mind, he compares three Mediterranean societies – Egypt, Greece, and Albania – each of which experienced very different trajectories of state formation. Galaty attributes these differences to varying responses to collective memory in all three places through time, with climaxes in the Ottoman period, during which all three were under Ottoman control. Egypt was characterized by deeply meaningful memory tropes concerning national unity, which spanned all of Egyptian history, while Greece experienced memory fragmentation, a condition exacerbated by periods of imperial conquest. Albania adapted and assimilated when faced with foreign domination, such that an indigenous Albanian state did not form until 1912.
Galaty builds a diachronic model of state formation and its relationship to memory and political control. Memory and Nation Building culminates in an analysis of modern collective memory systems and resistance to those systems, which are often framed as conflicts over “heritage”. The formation and eventual fall of the short-lived Islamic State serves as an example of extreme memory work, with lessons for other modern nations.
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Bibliographic data
Copyright year
2018
ISBN-Print
978-0-7591-2260-4
ISBN-Online
978-0-7591-2262-8
Publisher
Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham
Language
English
Pages
200
Product type
Book Titles
Table of contents
ChapterPages
Contents No access
Acknowledgments No access
List of Figures and Tables No access
Prologue: Bosnia No access
Preface: Memory: An Effort After Meaning No access
1: Introduction: Collective Memory Defined No access
2: Egypt: Unification No access Pages 32 - 63
3: Greece: Diversification No access Pages 64 - 98
4: Albania: Adaptation No access Pages 99 - 131
5: Conclusion: All These Memories Have Gone No access Pages 132 - 158
