Awards

• Joint winner of Dr. Sona Aronian Book Prize for Excellence in Armenian Studies 2019 (United States)
• Joint winner of Dr. Sona Aronian Book Prizes for Excellence in Armenian Studies 2019 (United States)

Overview

Over the past two decades, many states have heard demands that they recognize and apologize for historic wrongs. Such calls have not elicited uniform or predictable responses. While some states have apologized for past crimes, others continue to silence, deny, and relativize dark pasts. What explains the tremendous variation in how states deal with past crimes? When and why do states change the stories they tell about their dark pasts. Dark Pasts argues that international pressures increase the likelihood of change in official narratives about dark pasts, but domestic considerations determine the content of such change. Rather than simply changing with the passage of time, persistence, or rightness, official narratives of dark pasts are shaped by interactions between political factors at the domestic and international levels. Unpacking the complex processes through which international pressures and domestic dynamics shape states' narratives, Jennifer M. Dixon analyzes the trajectories over the past sixty years of Turkey's narrative of the 1915-17 Armenian Genocide and Japan's narrative of the 1937-38 Nanjing Massacre. While both states' narratives started from similar positions of silencing, relativizing, and denial, Japan has come to express regret and apologize for the Nanjing Massacre, while Turkey has continued to reject official wrongdoing and deny the genocidal nature of the violence. Combining historical richness and analytical rigor, Dark Pasts unravels the complex processes through which such narratives are constructed and contested, and offers an innovative way to analyze narrative change. Her book sheds light on the persistent presence of the past and reveals how domestic politics functions as a filter that shapes the ways in which states' narratives change-or do not-over time.

Full Product Details

9781501730245

Table of Contents

Reviews

Jennifer Dixon draws on extensive evidence from Turkey and Japan to develop a careful conceptual framework and advance a persuasive argument. Her fascinating book has implications for scholars of memory, justice, and human rights, and for those seeking to understand state narratives, how they matter, and why they shift. -- Scott Straus, University of Wisconsin-Madison Dark Pasts is required reading for those interested in how and why governments engage in historical mythmaking about their own past human rights atrocities, and how they suppress others' efforts to reveal these atrocities. -- Stephen Van Evera, Massachusetts Institute of Technology In this fascinating study, Jennifer Dixon investigates when and how official narratives about political violence actually change. Her findings are eye-opening and reveal how the dynamic interplay between international pressure and domestic contestation influences the politics of memory. This book should be read by scholars of human rights, transitional justice, and comparative politics. -- Bronwyn Leebaw, University of California, Riverside, and author of prize-winning <I>Judging State Sponsored Violence, Imagining Political Change</I> The quality of Dark Pasts is excellent. Dixon's work is unique in its comparison of the denial of violence in both Turkey and Japan, and in its analytical rigor. Well-conceived, based on a wealth of resources, this book is a significant contribution. -- Fatma Muge Goecek, University of Michigan, and author of <I>Denial of Violence</I>

Dark Pasts is required reading for those interested in how and why governments engage in historical mythmaking about their own past human rights atrocities, and how they suppress others' efforts to reveal these atrocities. -- Stephen Van Evera, Ford International Professor of Political Science, MIT In this fascinating study, Jennifer Dixon investigates when and how official narratives about political violence actually change. Her findings are eye-opening and reveal how the dynamic interplay between international pressure and domestic contestation influences the politics of memory. This book should be read by scholars of human rights, transitional justice, and comparative politics. -- Bronwyn Leebaw, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of California, Riverside, and author of prize-winning <I>Judging State Sponsored Violence, Imagining Political Change</I> The quality of Dark Pasts is excellent. Dixon's work is unique in its comparison of the denial of violence in both Turkey and Japan, and in its analytical rigor. Well-conceived, based on a wealth of resources, this book is a significant contribution. -- Fatma Muge Goecek, Professor of Sociology and Women's Studies, University of Michigan, and author of <I>Denial of Violence: Ottoman Past, Turkish Present, and Collective Violence against Armenians</I>

In this fascinating study, Jennifer Dixon investigates when and how official narratives about political violence actually change. Her findings are eye-opening and reveal how the dynamic interplay between international pressure and domestic contestation influences the politics of memory. This book should be read by scholars of human rights, transitional justice, and comparative politics. -- Bronwyn Leebaw, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of California, Riverside, and author of prize-winning <I>Judging State Sponsored Violence, Imagining Political Change</I> The quality of Dark Pasts is excellent. Dixon's work is unique in its comparison of the denial of violence in both Turkey and Japan, and in its analytical rigor. Well-conceived, based on a wealth of resources, this book is a significant contribution. -- Fatma Muge Gocek, Professor of Sociology and Women's Studies, University of Michigan, and author of <I>Denial of Violence: Ottoman Past, Turkish Present, and Collective Violence against Armenians</I>

Dixon offers valuable insights into how a country addresses its past horrors.... This book offers some reassurance to those who fight for change, demonstrating that their efforts can be effective. * Choice *

Author Information

Jennifer M. Dixon is Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at Villanova University. She has published articles in Perspectives on Politics, South European Society and Politics, and International Journal of Middle East Studies.

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