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History, Commemoration and National Preoccupation: Trafalgar 1805–2005

Online ISBN:
9780191734496
Print ISBN:
9780197264065
Publisher:
British Academy
Book

History, Commemoration and National Preoccupation: Trafalgar 1805–2005

Holger Hoock (ed.)
Holger Hoock
(ed.)
Lecturer in British Cultural History, University of Liverpool
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Published online:
31 January 2012
Published in print:
14 June 2007
Online ISBN:
9780191734496
Print ISBN:
9780197264065
Publisher:
British Academy

Abstract

This volume explores the commemoration of the Battle of Trafalgar and Admiral Lord Nelson's death over the past two centuries. It includes the celebrations of 2005, which saw hundreds of official, commercial, and popular events celebrating and commemorating the bicentenary of Trafalgar and the death of Nelson. Leading historians of Britain and France reflect critically on complex notions of remembrance, celebration, honouring, and commemoration. Taking historical snapshots of the commemoration of Nelson at his death, a century later in 1905, and in contemporary Britain, the contributors ask: who drives the commemoration of historical anniversaries and to what ends? Which Nelson, or Nelsons, have had a role in national memory over the past two centuries? And who identifies with Nelson today? Focusing on Britain, but looking also at imperial and French contexts, the papers consider how memoirs, history writing, visual and modern media and museums, and official and unofficial interests, contribute to keeping and shaping memory. As the changing manner of memorializing key moments in national history allows historians to study cultural meanings and interpretations of national identity, the contributors to this volume exhort the wider profession to engage critically with ‘public history’. This work is about the history of memory and commemoration and will be of interest those with general interests in naval, maritime, cultural and public history.

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