Reckoning With Pinochet: The Memory Question in Democratic Chile, 1989–2006 - Couverture souple

Stern, Steve J.

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 0822347296 ISBN 13 : 9780822347293

Editeur : Duke University Press, 2010

Synopsis

"Reckoning with Pinochet" is the first comprehensive account of how Chile came to terms with General Augusto Pinochet''s legacy of human- rights atrocities. An icon of Latin America''s ''dirty war'' dictators, Pinochet had ruled with extreme violence while building a loyal social base. Hero to some and criminal to others, the general cast a long shadow over Chile''s future. Steve J. Stern recounts the full history of Chile''s democratic reckoning, from the negotiations to chart a post- dictatorship transition in 1989; through Pinochet''s arrest in London in 1998; the thirtieth anniversary, in 2003, of the coup that overthrew President Salvador Allende; and, Pinochet''s death in 2006. He shows how transnational events and networks shaped Chile''s battles over memory, and how the Chilean case contributed to shifts in the world culture of human rights. Stern''s analysis integrates policymaking by elites, grassroots efforts by human-rights victims and activists, and inside accounts of the truth commissions and courts where top-down and bottom- up initiatives met. Interpreting solemn presidential speeches, raucous street protests, interviews, journalism, humour, cinema, and other sources, he describes the slow, imperfect, but surprisingly forceful advance of efforts to revive democratic values through public memory struggles, despite the power still wielded by the military and a conservative social base including the investor class. Over time, resourceful civil-society activists and select state actors won hard- fought if limited gains. As a result, Chileans were able to face the unwelcome past more honestly, launch the world''s first truth commission to examine torture, ensnare high-level perpetrators in the web of criminal justice, and build a public culture of human rights. Stern provides an important conceptualization of collective memory in the wake of national trauma in this magisterial work of history.

A propos du livre

Revue de presse :

"Reckoning with Pinochet is the best account of the trajectory of historical memory under Chile's restored democracy from 1989 until 2006, and a revealing window on that era and its democratic transition. It reflects Steve J. Stern's comprehensive knowledge of this period in Chile's history and his empathetic sensibility, which enables him to see the issues he discusses through the eyes even of people with whom he profoundly disagrees." --Peter Winn, editor of Victims of the Chilean Miracle: Workers and Neoliberalism in the Pinochet Era, 1973-2002

"This is a master work on what has proved to be one of the late 20th-century's key events: Chile's transition from General Pinochet's brutal rule to a growing promise of democracy. But it is much more. Steve J. Stern convincingly argues not only that the transition was made possible by a fierce battle over the 'memory' of Pinochet's rule and a 'healthier, accountable democracy,' but concludes by placing this struggle in a profound global context: in the early 1970s many nations began a historic shift toward human rights concerns and democracy, a shift on which Chile's experience has had a major, and reciprocal, influence."-- --Walter LaFeber, Andrew and James Tisch University Professor Emeritus, Cornell University

À propos de cette édition

• Éditeur: Duke University Press
• Date d'édition: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0822347296
• ISBN 13: 9780822347293
• Reliure: Broché
• Nombre de pages: 584