The Texture of Memory: Holocaust Memorials and Meaning

Rating:
Summary: Memory as monuments
Review: After having read this book for my historical anthropology class, I was completely taken by its broad-based approach to analyzing monuments and the histories they possess. To fully appreciate this book, the difference between 'history' and 'the past' must be understood. 'The past' is everything that has already happened. As soon as a second passes, the past has been constructed simulatenously the world over. History, on the other hand, is how people, cultures, governments, etc. choose to present sections of the past. History is a section of the past that is magnified and often made to represent the entire past despite its fragmented recounting. Young does an excellent job of showing how four different countries recall the same events (the holocaust, the Warsaw ghetto uprising, among others) with different and unique results, demonstrating how 'history' differs from 'the past'; each history is a different retelling of a country's perception of 'the past'. He analyzes these methods of remembrance through monuments and the outcome is an excellent analysis of how memory is constructed and interpreted and how personal experience shapes and influences one's perspective on the past, thus influencing their perception of history. The book is well written with many pictures and historical tidbits to place monuments in their proper context (although, after reading the book, you come to realize that monuments have no true proper context). I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in the holocaust, theory of history, art history, or cultural studies. Excellent book.

Rating:
Summary: Memory as monuments
Review: After having read this book for my historical anthropology class, I was completely taken by its broad-based approach to analyzing monuments and the histories they possess. To fully appreciate this book, the difference between 'history' and 'the past' must be understood. 'The past' is everything that has already happened. As soon as a second passes, the past has been constructed simulatenously the world over. History, on the other hand, is how people, cultures, governments, etc. choose to present sections of the past. History is a section of the past that is magnified and often made to represent the entire past despite its fragmented recounting. Young does an excellent job of showing how four different countries recall the same events (the holocaust, the Warsaw ghetto uprising, among others) with different and unique results, demonstrating how 'history' differs from 'the past'; each history is a different retelling of a country's perception of 'the past'. He analyzes these methods of remembrance through monuments and the outcome is an excellent analysis of how memory is constructed and interpreted and how personal experience shapes and influences one's perspective on the past, thus influencing their perception of history. The book is well written with many pictures and historical tidbits to place monuments in their proper context (although, after reading the book, you come to realize that monuments have no true proper context). I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in the holocaust, theory of history, art history, or cultural studies. Excellent book.