Remembering protest

Griffin, Carl J.; McDonagh, Briony

Abstract

This book is about protest and the multiple and contested ways it is remembered, about the work protest memories do and the uses of the past in the (historical) present. While several chapters speak to the present en passant, it is not a study of the way protests past are mobilised today – that worthy subject awaits its author – but rather a broader and temporally deeper analysis of the rememberings and tellings of protest in Britain in the period between roughly 1500 and 1850. Drawing on work in social and cultural history, cultural and historical geography, psychology, anthropology, critical heritage studies and memory studies, this collection of essays seeks for the first time to consider systemically the ways in which protest is remembered, not least by early modern and modern protestors themselves. This is not to say that this is the first study of protest memory: recent studies by Steve Hindle and Andy Wood, along with the ‘Tales of the Revolt’ project led Judith Pollman at Leiden examining memories of the Dutch Revolt, take precedence. Paul Roberts’ study of the prominent Chartist William Aitken also shows the power of autobiography as a tool in how protest memories were produced. Inspired by Andy Wood’s pioneering The Memory of the People, the purpose of this book is to consider the dynamic and lived nature of the past protests, in communities and at large. In so doing, it emphasises the contested and shifting nature of the meanings of past episodes of conflict, revealing how the past itself was (and remains) an important source of conflict and opposition. The book is thus novel in that it draws together the early modern and the modern, in that it considers the legacy of both the dramatic and the (relatively) mundane, and that it offers the first showcase of the variety of approaches that comprise the vibrant and intellectually fecund ‘new protest history’.

Citation

Griffin, C. J., & McDonagh, B. (2018). Remembering protest. In C. J. Griffin, & B. McDonagh (Eds.), Remembering Protest in Britain since 1500 : Memory, Materiality and the Landscape (1-23). Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74243-4_1

• Online Publication Date: Jul 10, 2018
• Publication Date: Jul 9, 2018
• Deposit Date: Oct 6, 2020
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Pages: 1-23
• Book Title: Remembering Protest in Britain since 1500 : Memory, Materiality and the Landscape
• ISBN: 9783319742427 9783030089443
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74243-4_1
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/3608329
• Publisher URL: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-3-319-74243-4_1