Overview

This book offers a global and systematic overview of populist politics of history in the twenty-first century. An international group of scholars interrogates how and why populists engage with the past. Twelve case studies focus on uses of history and memory by populist movements across the globe – ranging from Brazil to Bangladesh, from Poland to Tanzania. Five thematic chapters zoom in on key features of populism: its relation to time, nationalism, emotions, academic expertise, and the language of 'moral remembrance'. The focus is both on left- and right-wing populism, as well as on oppositional populism and populists in power. This way, the volume presents an empirically rigorous and conceptually innovative analysis of populist historical reason.

Full Product Details

9781009453639

Table of Contents

Reviews

'This excellent collection brings top scholars together to examine how memory and history are instrumentalised in various forms of populism. The result is a wealth of insights and critical perspectives, making it required reading for everyone interested in this key aspect of contemporary politics.' Ann Rigney, Utrecht University 'Populism's relation to history is both peculiar and necessary. For once, we have a book not on what populism is, or its relationship to democracy, but on the essential topic of populism's relation to history (and use of it), including 'past presencing' for purposes of identity creation, evocation of affect, and political struggle. Among several remarkable ways of relating to the past, the book showcases odd but understandable chains of equivalence between nationally canonic elements of the past and the present, and a notion of time as (incessantly) updating what is already known rather than evolving. The volume's short, readable case studies are, in addition, great reflection-triggering texts. This intriguing book will leave readers more knowledgeable, if also perhaps more perplexed.' Pierre Ostiguy, Universidad de Valparaíso 'Remarkably global and comparative in scope, Claiming the People's Past breaks new ground in asking if there is a specific kind of 'historical reason' that contemporary authoritarian and populist leaders and regimes – including those in the world's oldest and largest formal democracies – put to work when they stake their claims on pasts and futures. Populism is a much-discussed topic, and scholars have legitimately asked if this one word could indeed accommodate all the historical and institutional differences we seek to bring under its cover. The editors and contributors to this book build on these debates to answer a question that, to my knowledge, has not been asked before. Truly a very important contribution to histories of the present.' Dipesh Chakrabarty, University of Chicago

Author Information

Berber Bevernage is associate professor of historical theory at the Department of History at Ghent University. His research focuses on the dissemination, attestation and contestation of historical discourse and historical culture in post-conflict situations. He is the co-founder of the interdisciplinary research forum 'TAPAS/Thinking About the PASt' which focuses on popular, academic, and artistic dealings with the past in a large variety of different cultural and social areas. Eline Mestdagh is a historian and researcher at the Department of History at Ghent University. Her current research deals with ongoing memory conflicts on the public (re)presentation of the Belgian colonial past, where she is specifically interested in the argumentative role of historical cultures and their underlying assumptions about time, historiography, and the proper way to 'deal with the past'. She is also a coordinating member of the interdisciplinary research forum TAPAS/Thinking About the PASt and a member of the International Network for the Theory of History. Walderez Ramalho is researcher at the Federal University of Ouro Preto specializing in Theory and Philosophy of History, History of Historiography, and Contemporary History. His current research focuses on the idea of kairos as a particular form of experiencing historical time. Marie-Gabrielle Verbergt is a researcher at Ghent University, working at the intersection of historiography, the theory of history, the history of European integration, and the sociology of knowledge. Her research interest is the history of late 20th and 21st century historiography. Her current work touches upon those questions by focusing on European Union sponsorship of historical research between 1970 and today.

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