Visual consumption, collective memory and the representation of war

Conceiving of the visual as a significant force in the production and dissemination of collective memory, we argue that a new genre of World War Two films has recently emerged that form part of a new discursive “regime of memory” about the war and those that fought and lived through it, constituting a commemoration as much about reflecting on the present as it is about remembering the past. First, we argue that these films seek to reaffirm a (particular conception of a) US national identity and military patriotism in the post–Cold War era by importing World War Two as the key meta‐narrative of America’s relationship to war in order to “correct” and help “erase” Vietnam’s more negative discursive rendering. Second, we argue that these films attempt to rewrite the history of World War Two by elevating and illuminating the role of the US at the expense of the Allies, further serving to reaffirm America’s position of political and military dominance in the current age, and third, that these films form part of a celebration of the generation that fought World War Two, which may accord them a position of nostalgic and sentimental greatness, as their collective spirit and notions of duty and service shine against the foil of what might frequently be seen as our own present moral ambivalence

Setting the Stage: Performing Politics in Theatres of Memory

The British historian Raphael Samuel is best known as a founding figure in the first British New Left and the driving force behind the history workshop movement which set out to democratise history-making in post Britain. Whilst the workshop has attracted attention for its radical pedagogical practice, Samuel’s distinctive approach to the writing of history has been less acknowledged. This paper contends that Theatres of Memory (1994), Samuel’s only sole-authored book published in his lifetime, both articulates and performs its author’s activist, participatory politics. If the workshop was intended to turn the formality of the historical conference or seminar on its head, Theatres applied the same subversive spirit to that icon of professional scholarship: the monograph. Written in the wake of and in response to the post-war fragmentation of the political left, Samuel sought a means of escaping the ideological and epistemological impasse that had arisen between factions. Rather than taking a stance on ‘people’s history’, Theatres recognised, and advocated for, history making as a common social activity. By making participation its core principle, it reconstituted socialism as an ethics of practice, an adjective rather than a noun, that could accommodate many variations. Drawing on a dramaturgical analysis to illuminate its dynamics of action, this article examines how the book enacted this participatory politics through a range of compositional techniques aimed at stimulating active readership. In doing so, it demonstrated, rather than described, a blueprint for the historian’s role in an expanding, pluralist, historical culture

Ordinary working men...transformed into giants on the rugby field': Individual and Collective Memory in Oral Histories of Rugby League.

As a sport that partly owes its existence to the issue of ‘broken time’, the working life of professional players outside the game is a highly symbolic issue in rugby league. In England financial reality meant that until the 1990s most players at professional level had to combine their career with full time employment away from the sport, often in the communities they represented on the field. To many this helped create a strong communal bond between those who played and watched rugby league and this perception has become a key cultural narrative in the sport’s ‘collective’ memory. This article uses individual narratives from oral history interviews which relate to the working life of professional players outside rugby league to examine the contention advanced by the sociologist Maurice Halbwachs and others that recollections of personal experience are always shaped to fit within the accepted public discourse. A wide range of personal testimonies are considered in order to illustrate how far, as some oral historians have argued, individuals are able to reflect upon the significance of shared experiences in ways which offer alternative perspectives to dominant cultural scripts

Developing local narratives for objects in national collections: lessons learned from the “Number Please? Working with the Enfield Exchange” project

Museums of science, technology, and engineering are developing new ways of interpreting and displaying their collections. Increasingly objects are being placed within narratives of everyday use; the human side of technology. The focus of this article is a section of one of the last UK manual telephone switchboards, which was acquired by the Science Museum, London, following its decommissioning in 1960. This artifact offers a unique insight into a communication technology that relied extensively on female telephonists, a distinct way of understanding gender roles in the twentieth century. The authors explore strategies for developing local narratives for objects from national collections and reflect on lessons learned from a cross-institutional collaboration. This article highlights: the value of local historians, community events and oral histories to developing local narratives; how these activities informed understandings of the telephone switchboard; work life in the communications industry; the relationship between women and technology; and practical strategies that can enhance collections and museum practice through collaboration