Description
Book SynopsisHow does a city and a nation deal with a legacy of perpetrating atrocity? How are contemporary identities negotiated and shaped in the face of concrete reminders of a past that most wish they did not have?
Difficult Heritage focuses on the case of Nuremberg a city whose name is indelibly linked with Nazism to explore these questions and their implications. Using an original in-depth research, using archival, interview and ethnographic sources, it provides not only fascinating new material and perspectives, but also more general original theorizing of the relationship between heritage, identity and material culture.
The book looks at how Nuremberg has dealt with its Nazi past post-1945. It focuses especially, but not exclusively, on the city's architectural heritage, in particular, the former Nazi party rally grounds, on which the Nuremburg rallies were staged. The book draws on original sources, such as city council debates and interviews, to chart a lively
Trade Review
"Sharon Macdonald deftly handles this complex terrain, offering a sophisticated theoretical analysis based on a well-grounded ethnographic study. In other words, this book is an exceptional piece of anthropology."
-Chip Colwell-Chanthaphonh,Denver Museum of Nature and Science, Current Anthropology, Volume 51, Number 3, June 2010
Table of Contents1. Negotiating Difficult Heritage: Introduction 2. Building Heritage: Words in Stone? 3. Demolition, Cleansing and Moving On 4. Preservation, Profanation and Image-Management 5. Accompanied Witnessing: Education, Art and Alibis 6. Cosmopolitan Memory in the City of Human Rights 7. Negotiating on the Ground(s): Guided Tours of Nazi Heritage 8. Visting Difficult Heritage 9. Unsettling Difficult Heritage
