Table of Contents

1. Introduction Part 1: The Sociology of Memory 2. Collective Memory: The Two Cultures 3. Collective Memory and Cultural Constraint: Holocaust Myth and Rationality in the Federal Republic of Germany 4. Genre Memories and Memory Genres: A Dialogical Analysis of May 8th, 1945 Commemorations in the Federal Republic of Germany 5. Figurations of Memory: A Process-Relational Approach Part 2: The Politics of Regret 6. The Politics of Regret: Analytical Frames 7. The Value of Regret: Lessons from and for Germany 8. Collective Memory and Chronic Differentiation: Historicity and the Public Sphere 9. From Theodicy to Ressentiment: Trauma and the Ages of Compensation

About the Author

Jeffrey K. Olick is Professor of Sociology and History at the University of Virginia. His previous books include "In the House of the Hangman: The Agonies of German Defeat, 1943-1949" (Chicago 2005) and "States of Memory: Continuities, Conflicts, and Transformations in National Retrospection" (Duke 2003).

Reviews

"Olick's book is imaginative, thorough, and demanding: it sparkles with facts, ideas, concepts, and fascinating historical dynamics. The presentation is powerful and persuasive. While the books offers one of the most interesting and holistic presentations of collective memory, it goes well beyond it - to the complex meanings of modernity."-- American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 114, No. 3