Promotional Information

Examines the nature of collective memory in a globalized world, and how the memory of one singular event - the Holocaust - helped give rise to an emerging global consensus on human rights

Table of Contents

1. Revised Introduction to the English EditionPart I2. Cosmopolitan Memory3. Holocaust and DiasporaPart II4. The Postwar Years5. Debates and ReflectionsPart III6. The Holocaust between Representation and Institutionalization7. The Consequences of Cosmopolitan MemoryBibliographyIndex

About the Author

Daniel Levy is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the State University of New York, Stony Brook. Natan Sznaider is Associate Professor of Sociology at the Academic College of Tel-Aviv-Yaffo, Israel.

Reviews

"The authors' rich text comprises a journey covering, first, silence about the Holocaust, then public awareness, which turned into national memories, which later changed to global concerns generating social action on behalf of the victims around the globe...This new cosmopolitan memory is]beautifully captured, conceptualized, and analyzed in this engaging book." American Journal of Sociology "Many have noted that the Holocaust is remembered differently in the United States than in Israel, which in turn remembers the event differently than any number of other nations. Levy and Sznaider's book attempts to break this mould...they present a lucid and convincing argument that the Holocaust has increasingly come to represent the paradigmatic event of twentieth-century evil within a universal ethic of internationalized human rights...As an attempt to draw some of the attention in discussion of Holocaust memory away from the context of the nation and onto an international context, this work is a success." The Journal of Jewish Studies "By raising these issues, by showing how the Holocaust has been transformed into a model for global collective memory, the authors demonstrate that certain norms for human rights must, at the very least, be acknowledged in these uncertain times. This conclusion, in the end, could leave the reader with some hope, even as the struggle over the Holocaust's meaning for the future continues. ...This volume provides an interesting addition to ongoing debates over the memory of the Holocaust...Those wishing to read something beyond the long list of works on the Germans' struggle over their past and consider questions about the future might wish to give this work a glance. While there is obviously no answer yet to how the role of the Holocaust in our future will unfold, those who read this volume will, at the very least, have the opportunity to consider questions that are likely to become even more serious in the coming decades." H-Net "[A]n insightful and stimulating study that offers a solid contribution to our understanding of the Holocaust's evolving global legacy." Holocaust and Genocide Studies