1963 kennedy assassination
A01=Amy Corning
A01=Howard Schuman
adolescence
anthropology
Author_Amy Corning
Author_Howard Schuman
autobiographical
berlin wall
Category=JBCC
china
cognitive psychology
collective memory
early adulthood
epochal events
eq_bestseller
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
formative experiences
generations
germany
group meaning
historical research
historiography
history
interviews
israel
japan
large social trends
lithuania
political issues
public opinion
reputations
revolutions
russia
share memories
society
sociological aspects
sociology
ukraine
united states
Product details
- ISBN 9780226282527
- Weight: 567g
- Dimensions: 17 x 23mm
- Publication Date: 31 Aug 2015
- Publisher: The University of Chicago Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
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When discussing large social trends or experiences, we tend to group people into generations. But what does it mean to be part of a generation, and what gives that group meaning and coherence? It's collective memory, say Amy Corning and Howard Schuman, and in Generations and Collective Memory, they draw on an impressive range of research to show how generations share memories of formative experiences, and how understanding the way those memories form and change can help us understand society and history. Their key finding-built on historical research and interviews in the United States and seven other countries (including China, Japan, Germany, Lithuania, Russia, Israel, and Ukraine)-is that our most powerful generational memories are of shared experiences in adolescence and early adulthood, like the 1963 Kennedy assassination for those born in the 1950s or the fall of the Berlin Wall for young people in 1989. But there are exceptions to that rule, and they're significant: Corning and Schuman find that epochal events in a country, like revolutions, override the expected effects of age, affecting citizens of all ages with a similar power and lasting intensity.
The picture Corning and Schuman paint of collective memory and its formation is fascinating on its face, but it also offers intriguing new ways to think about the rise and fall of historical reputations and attitudes toward political issues.
Amy Corning is a research investigator at the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan. She resides in Virginia. Howard Schuman is professor of sociology and research scientist emeritus at the University of Michigan. He is the author of many books, including, most recently, Method and Meaning in Polls and Surveys. He lives in Maine.
