Synopses & Reviews
We are nothing in an absolute sense. We are only what we have been-more exactly, what we remember we were. So begins the latest book by one of Europe's most influential modern sociologists, Franco Ferrarotti. In
The Temptation to Forget, Ferrarotti examines how many in the waning years of the 20th century are attempting to forget or reinvent history to serve the purposes of ethnic, racial, or religious separation.
Ferrarotti focuses on anti-Semitism and its re-emergence among the Skinheads of the 1980s to draw parallels to how the Holocaust has been reinterpreted/forgotten, and to analyze the implications of this for relations with other ethnic, racial, and religious minorities. Ethnic cleansing may be a new term, but, as Ferrarotti illustrates, it has a long heritage in thought and action. This book will make for provocative reading among professional sociologists and students of contemporary social issues.
Synopsis
"We are nothing in an absolute sense. We are only what we have been-more exactly, what we remember we were." So begins the latest book by one of Europe's most influential modern sociologists, Franco Ferrarotti. In The Temptation to Forget, Ferrarotti examines how many in the waning years of the 20th century "forget" or reinvent history to serve the purposes of ethnic, racial, or religious separation.
Synopsis
An examination of how proponents of racial, ethnic, and religious separatism seek to silence our remembrance of the past.
About the Author
FRANCO FERRAROTTI is Professor of Sociology at the University of Rome.
Table of Contents
Carpentras: The Attack on Memory
The Moral Imperative of Remembrance
The Two Thirty Years' Wars
The Charismatic Leader and the Significance of the Enemy
The Jew as "Hostis": The Enemy Par Excellence, the `Diverse' to Exterminate
The Myth of Aryan Eurocentrism
The Responsibilities of Europe and Its Possible Redemption
The Ambiguous Role of Intellectual Avant-Gardes
Race, the Tabu Word
Man Is a Memory and a Project for Man
The Holocaust as a Problem of Mankind
Races and Cultures
Races: Not To Be Confused with Cultures
Beyond Racism: For the Victims, But Also for the Racists
Multicultural Society: Hypotheses and Prospects
For Further Reading
Index