Awards

• Short-listed for National Jewish Book Award (Holocaust) 2000

Overview

"How do nations and aggrieved parties, in the wake of heinous crimes and horrible injustices, make amends in a way that acknowledges wrongdoing and redefines future interactions? How does the growing practice of negotiating restitution restore a sense of morality and enhance prospects for world peace? Where has restitution worked and where has it not? The Guilt of Nations explores this increasingly important dynamic in world politics today. Beyond its moral implications, restitution reflects a critical shift in political and economic bargaining. While preserving individual rights, restitution also enables victimized groups to receive growing recognition as groups. Elazar Barkan traces instances of historical crimes, such as the incarceration of Japanese Americans in the United States during World War II, the sexual abuse of ""comfort women"" by Japanese soldiers, and the recent controversy over the financial dealings between Swiss banks and Nazi Germany. He argues that, as countries including the United States, Australia, and New Zealand come to recognize past injustices toward indigenous peoples within their borders, both governments and minority groups are compelled to redress the history of colonialism and redefine national identity. While restitution is not a panacea, this ever-spreading trend represents a new moral order in world politics."

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9780393048865

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Reviews

A timely examination of how guilt, victimization, and restitution have become pervasive in the dialogue of global politics.Defying the traditions of realpolitik, Barkan (Cultural Studies/Claremont Graduate Univ.) argues that more and more nations are acknowledging and reacting to historical injustices. This trend began with German reparations to Jews in the 1950s and continues to manifest itself in national and international arenas. Barka views the cases for restitution brought forward by victims of WWII and by indigenous peoples of North America and Oceania, as well as efforts by the newly democratic states in Eastern Europe to return property confiscated under Communist rule. Barkan explores the complexity of restitution, concluding that, in the more successful cases (such as reparations paid by the American government to Japanese citizens for internment during WWII), the reward was not found in the material compensation itself but in the galvanization of victimized communities, which led to increased political clout. Restitution is a process, writes Barkan, not a specific solution or standard. There are some questions that the author leaves unanswered, however. While he makes a clear case that principles of moral economy are a growing force in current politics, he does not explain why this is so and why it is a post-WWII phenomenon. And whether the very concept of restitution is itself a product or an agent of the late 20th century is not clear, either.In the tradition of Samuel Huntingtons Clash of Civilizations, Barkans study illustrates that religious and ethnic identities are increasingly pitted against the nation-state. This is an important and very necessary addition to postCold War political discourse. (Kirkus Reviews)

Compensation paid by one group of people to another in the name of past wrongs is a timely topic. Whether talking about reparations made to Jewish families by Swiss banks, the package of land and fishing rights awarded to the Maori of New Zealand or the perennial and thorny problems of appalling hardship and institutional racism endured by African-Americans during the slavery era and since, the issues go beyond mere transactions of cash or title deeds to embrace issues of racism, conscience and philosophy. In today's 'compensation culture', it is easy to make the assumption that economic restitution fulfils the function of paying individuals or groups for their distress, and little else. Yet Eleazar Barkan looks beyond the material to assess the benefits that restitution has for those who are forced to pay for their historical wrongs. Sometimes the process itself of admitting guilt, especially when the collective consciousness has been one of denial - the Japanese attitude towards the Korean 'comfort women' in the Second World War, for example - has important consequences for global human rightsand international relations. The author takes a close, unsentimental look at the processes involved in determining victimhood, and assesses how nations on both sides of the restitution negotiations are redefined in terms of their global identities. Races who have suffered genocide during war - and peace; countries whose indigenous peoples have been dispossessed; ethnic groups who have been suspected of treason and interned: Barkan uses concrete examples of all of these to bring to life abstract political and philosophical questions about right, wrong, and our obligations to our countries and to the wider international community. (Kirkus UK)

Author Information

Elazar Barkan is chair of the Cultural Studies Department and associate professor of history at Claremont Graduate University.

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