A leading contrarian thinker explores the ethical paradox at the heart of history's wounds
The conventional wisdom about historical memory is summed up in George Santayana's celebrated phrase, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." Today, the consensus that it is moral to remember, immoral to forget, is nearly absolute. And yet is this right?
David Rieff, an independent writer who has reported on bloody conflicts in Africa, the Balkans, and Central Asia, insists that things are not so simple. He poses hard questions about whether remembrance ever truly has, or indeed ever could, "inoculate" the present against repeating the crimes of the past. He argues that rubbing raw historical wounds-whether self-inflicted or imposed by outside forces-neither remedies injustice nor confers reconciliation. If he is right, then historical memory is not a moral imperative but rather a moral option-sometimes called for, sometimes not. Collective remembrance can be toxic. Sometimes, Rieff concludes, it may be more moral to forget.
Ranging widely across some of the defining conflicts of modern times-the Irish Troubles and the Easter Uprising of 1916, the white settlement of Australia, the American Civil War, the Balkan wars, the Holocaust, and 9/11-Rieff presents a pellucid examination of the uses and abuses of historical memory. His contentious, brilliant, and elegant essay is an indispensable work of moral philosophy.
A leading contrarian thinker explores the ethical paradox at the heart of history's wounds
The conventional wisdom about historical memory is summed up in George Santayana's celebrated phrase, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." Today, the consensus that it is moral to remember, immoral to forget, is nearly absolute. And yet is this right?
David Rieff, an independent writer who has reported on bloody conflicts in Africa, the Balkans, and Central Asia, insists that things are not so simple. He poses hard questions about whether remembrance ever truly has, or indeed ever could, "inoculate" the present against repeating the crimes of the past. He argues that rubbing raw historical wounds-whether self-inflicted or imposed by outside forces-neither remedies injustice nor confers reconciliation. If he is right, then historical memory is not a moral imperative but rather a moral option-sometimes called for, sometimes not. Collective remembrance can be toxic. Sometimes, Rieff concludes, it may be more moral to forget.
Ranging widely across some of the defining conflicts of modern times-the Irish Troubles and the Easter Uprising of 1916, the white settlement of Australia, the American Civil War, the Balkan wars, the Holocaust, and 9/11-Rieff presents a pellucid examination of the uses and abuses of historical memory. His contentious, brilliant, and elegant essay is an indispensable work of moral philosophy.
David Rieff is the author of many books, including, most recently, The Reproach of Hunger: Food, Justice, and Money in the 21st Century. He lives in New York City.
"David Rieff should be read by those in government and others who
are bent on harnessing collective memory for the purposes of
national commemoration."—Hew Strachan, Times Literary
Supplement
". . . an astringent, eloquent and sometimes moving essay on the
virtues of forgetting. . . . The prudence, caution and moderation
of Rieff’s argument is likable, as is his insistence on the need
for political judgement in balancing the claims of remembering and
forgetting."—Michael Ignatieff, Sunday Times
"Rieff makes a powerful case for reconciliation and compromise, and
exposes how politicized our nationalist histories are. Lucidly
deploying historical examples and literary references, he himself
seems to have forgotten nothing."—Gary J. Bass, New York Times Book
Review
"Rieff’s scathing critique of commemoration cuts uncomfortably
close to home bones."—Christopher Kissane, Irish Times
"In his excellent new book, In Praise of Forgetting, David Rieff
questions the commonly unquestioned: namely the purposes and
effects of collective memory. . . . He makes clear that structured,
state-sanctioned memorialising is in thrall to contemporary goals
and aspirations and not the past it is purporting to
preserve."—Andrea Goldsmith, Australian Book Review
“In Praise of Forgetting’s originality lies in its relentless
interdisciplinarity and fast-moving pace, drawing as it does so
interchangeably on works of history, philosophy, sociology,
literary fiction and poetry, and political science, flitting often
seamlessly between historical and contemporary issues. . . I found
the text an immensely thought-provoking read due to its eclectic
content and essay format. It raises a range of controversial
questions which force us to think through some of the disastrous
implications collective memory can have, and is therefore a success
on its own terms.”—Will McGowan, British Journal of Criminology
"This controversial book is a must-read for anyone concerned with
ethics, politics and the human situation today. Drawing on his
experience as a war correspondent and bringing to bear an
impressive grasp of history, David Rieff explores the role of
memory in the defining events of recent times, including the
origins and aftermath of war and ethnic cleansing in former
Yugoslavia, the malign inheritance of apartheid in South Africa,
and the supreme crime of the Holocaust."—John Gray, author of Black
Mass: Apocalyptic Religion and the Death of Utopia
"For those who grew up with 'Never again' as the call to
justice, David Rieff’s sober and erudite essay shocks with its
counterintuitive moral questioning: What exactly is gained—and
lost—by remembering? His assessment that paths to peace can be
found only if nations and groups find ways to forget the past
may be disputed by many, but honest thinkers will agree that we are
at the dangerous fulcrum of being both unforgiving and
unforgiven."—Susan D. Moeller, author of Shooting War:
Photography and the American Experience of Combat and Compassion
Fatigue:How the Media Sell Disease, Famine, War and Death
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