europe in the twentieth century paxton pdf

The first case study concerns the exhumations of human bodies who have been killed in war, and the second case study concerns war museums in contemporary Europe. The paper will then use two case studies in order, first, to discuss what forms of memory dominate in Europe today and, secondly, to see how an agonistic approach to memory might empower the EU to counter populist anti-European movements more effectively. Mouffe’s solution to the problem is the introduction of what she calls ‘agonistic memory’ – a form of memory which allows controversy and debate but stops short of traditional antagonistic forms of memory. As depoliticised memory it cannot counter the highly political charges brought against Europe by anti-European populist movements. It will introduce the ideas of French political theorist Chantal Mouffe, who has argued that such cosmopolitanism fails because it depoliticises memory. The paper will go on to argue that the particular cosmopolitan memory regime espoused by the EU seems powerless to to trump the range of vernacular national memory regimes working against the EU. It will discuss this in particular in relation to history debates surrounding Brexit and make reference to other history debates in France, the Netherlands and Germany. This paper will start from the observation that the memory politics of the European Union is currently unable to counter the surge of populist anti-European feeling in Europe. Center for Machine Learning, Data Analysis, and StatisticsĬultural Heritage of War in Twentieth-Century Europe – from antagonistic to agonistic memory.Institute for Interdisciplinary Health Research.Center for the Study of Cultural Memory and Symbolic Politics.Center for Institutional Analysis of Science & Education.

Center for Science and Technology Studies.

Europe in the twentieth century paxton pdf