On the Edge of Memory

Uneasy Legacies of Dissent, Terror, and Violence in the American Landscape

Dados Bibliográficos

ID10764701
AutoresKen Foote (0000-0003-4054-6553, autor correspondente), Kenneth Foote (University of Connecticut)
Ano2016
Volume97
Fascículo1
Páginas115-122
Data de publicação2016-03-01
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoSocial Science Quarterly (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0038-4941 • E-ISSN: 1540-6237
EditoraWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/ssqu.12259
OpenAlexW2284947314
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas3
Referências citadas10

Objective The Oklahoma City bombing of 1995 has had a major impact on public memory and commemoration in the United States. My aim here is to set this bombing in the broader context of how other events of violence and terror have been remembered. Method That many of the examples I mention are now largely forgotten speaks to their equivocal meanings and their relatively faint imprint on the American landscape. Using a comparative case‐study methodology, I examine the tension that often arises between remembering and forgetting these events because honoring the victims necessarily calls attention to the killer and the killer's motives. Results Tensions over the meaning of violence tend to be particularly acute when the killer's motives involve unpopular or unpalatable causes or particularly brutal crimes. In these cases, communities may try to distance themselves as far as possible from the killer and the crime. Conclusion I argue that such efforts, successful or not, lead to a certain forgetfulness about the roles violence, terror, and political dissent play in American society

Context (archaeology) · Criminology · Dissent · Forgetting · Meaning (existential) · Political dissent · Political science · Political violence · Politics · Sociology · History · Law · Memory, Trauma, and Commemoration · Psychology · Rhetoric and Communication Studies · Terrorism, Counterterrorism, and Political Violence

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