This essay tribute to historian Arno Mayer was published in the Observer on 31 December 2023 under the headline “The conflict between history and memory lies at the heart of today’s cultural divides”. “The difference between the study of history and the construction of public memory, the American historian Arno Mayer observed, is that “whereas the voice of memory is univocal and uncontested, that of history is polyphonic and open to debate”. Memory, he added, “tends to rigidify over time, […]

Categories: Culture & Books, History • Tags: arno mayer, dd guttenplan, hannah arendt, holocaust denial, jewish thought, marxism, nazism, perry anderson, public memory, raul hillberg, the persistence of the old regime, tom nairn