Central European University Press Remembrance, History, and Justice: Coming to terms with traumatic pasts in democratic societies

The twentieth century has left behind a painful and complicated legacy of massive trauma, monstrous crimes, radical social engineering, or collective/individual guilt syndromes that were often the premises for and the specters haunting the process of democratization in the various societies that emerged out of these profoundly de-structuring contexts. The present manuscript is a state of the art reassessment and analysis of how the interplay between memory, history, and justice generates insight that is multifariously relevant for comprehending the present and future of democracy without becoming limited to a Europe-centric framework of understanding. The manuscript is structured on three complementary and interconnected trajectories: the public use of history, politics of memory, and transitional justice. Key words 1. Europe, Eastern--Politics and government--1989- 2. Collective memory--Europe, Eastern. 3. Memory--Political aspects--Europe, Eastern. 4. Democratization--Social aspects--Europe, Eastern. 5. Europe, Eastern--Historiography--Socialaspects. 6. Europe, Eastern--Historiography--Political aspects. 7. Social justice--Europe, Eastern. 8. Post-communism--Europe, Eastern. 9. Fascism--Socialaspects--Europe, Eastern. 10. Dictatorship--Social aspects--Europe, Eastern. About the Author Vladimir Tismaneanu is Professor of politics and Director of the Center for the Study of Post-communist Societies at University of Maryland (College Park), President of the Presidential Commission for the Analysis of the Communist Dictatorship in Romania (April 2006–March 2007), and since April 2007, Chairman of the Presidential Consultative Commission for the Analysis of the Communist Dictatorship in Romania. Bogdan C. Iacob is Post Doctoral Research Associate at the University of Exeter. He holds a Ph.D. in History from Central European University. His research interests centre on the relationship between state socialist countries and the Global South in terms of global politics of culture and healthcare policies. Dr. Iacob is also examining the legacy of state socialism’s global entanglements in the transformation of Eastern Europe after 1989.