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This title in other editionsLong Shadows: Truth, Lies and Historyby Erna Paris
Synopses & ReviewsPublisher Comments:Long Shadows offers a personal examination into the shifting terrain of war and memory that seeks to understand how nations come to terms with their most painful history. Combining storytelling with observation, Paris takes the reader on a remarkable journey through four continents to explore how nations reinvent themselves after cataclysmic events. She seeks out politicians and powerbrokers, as well as men and women living in the aftermath of repression, asking the question: Who gets to decide what actually happened yesterday, then to propagate the tale? How do people live with the consequences? Any why is it that many countries cannot lay the past to rest? Her journey takes her to the United States, with its memories of slavery; to South Africa, to sit in on a Truth and Reconciliation hearing to heal the divisions of apartheid; to Japan, to probe the unresolved struggled for truth in Second World history; to France, still wrestling with its wartime legacy of collaboration; to Germany, where ferocious 'memory battles' continue to swirl around the Holocaust; and to the former Yugoslavia, where she exposes the cynical shaping of historical memory, and the way the international community responded to the lethal outcome. Paris takes us directly to the places of reckoning; she finds hope in the way ordinary people grapple with defining events of their lives, and in the changing face of international justice. Long Shadows illuminates the modern world and makes us question where we stand as individuals in relation to our own collective histories. Review:"Long Shadows is a tenacious and intelligent investigation of the ways nations lie to themselves and how these lies scar national identities. It is also a study of the ways courageous individuals fight to recover the truth that these lies conceal. Anyone who thinks about the complex relation between lies, truth, and historical justice must engage with Erna Paris's work." Michael Ignatieff Review:"An ambitious...superb work of popular history and thought. A brilliantly conceived quest...Long Shadows is simply first-rate writing...an intellectual triumph." Vancouver Sun Review:"The reader is forever changed by reading Long Shadows. Working one's way through this book is akin to listening to complete symphonies of Gustav Mahler in a single sitting – an overwhelming experience, one that raises the profound philosophical questions of our time. Paris's analysis and storytelling talents never let the reader go. Deeply moving." Quill & Quire Book News Annotation:Part travelogue and part popular history, this work explores the way
that nations, and individuals within nations, remember atrocities
that they have committed. Heavily concerned with the notion of
collective guilt, the author travels to Germany, the United States,
Japan, South Africa, France, and Serbia. She examines governmental
efforts to deal with the past such as U.S. Congressional efforts to
issue an official apology for slavery, South Africa's Truth and
Reconciliation Commission, and Germany's attempts to integrate study
of the Holocaust into its educational curriculum. She also looks at
efforts by individuals to force their countries to examine their
pasts such as some Japanese attempts to fight the silence surrounding
the human medical experimentations on Chinese people during WWII.
Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com) Synopsis:Combining gripping storytelling with sharp observations, Paris travels the world to investigate areas where past conflict still resonates. Evocatively written, her journey illuminates a subject that will only become more crucial throughout the 21st century. About the AuthorErna Paris is the winner of seven national and international writing awards. She is the author of five critically acclaimed books of literary nonfiction, most recently The End of Days: A Story of Tolerance, Tyranny, and the Expulsion of the Jews from Spain, which won the 1996 Canadian National Jewish Book Award for History. She lives in Toronto. What Our Readers Are SayingBe the first to add a comment for a chance to win!Product Details
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