On the Difficulty of Living Together: Memory, Politics, and History (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780231164009)

In On the Difficulty of Living Together, Manuel Cruz launches a nuanced study of memory and forgetting, defining their forms and uses, political meanings, and social and historical implications. Memory is not an intrinsically positive phenomenon, he argues, but an impressionable and malleable one, used to advance a variety of agendas.

Cruz focuses on five memory models: that which is inherently valuable, that which legitimizes the present, that which supports retributive justice, that which is essential to mourning, and that which elicits renunciation or revelation. His methodical approach makes sense of memory's positive and negative effects, its contradictions, and its tensions. Cruz shows us that remembering is not necessarily an end in itself, nor is it a supreme value, immune to external influence. The exercise of memory guarantees nothing, though many insist it is a progressive act preventing the repetition of past mistakes. Tying the making of memory to the movements of history, Cruz prioritizes memory's political dimensions over its philosophical aspects and helps us remember its myriad uses.

Author: Manuel Cruz
ISBN-10: 0231164009
ISBN-13: 9780231164009
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Language: English
Published: 04/26/2016
Pages: 176
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 0.75lbs
Size: 8.30h x 5.60w x 0.80d

Review Citation(s):
Choice 10/01/2016