Jeff Olick on Memory Studies and Confronting the Past

Few scholars have influenced memory studies as much as Jeff Olick.  Professor of Sociology and History at the University of Virginia, Charlotte, Jeff was co-founder and past co-president of the Memory Studies Association, the leading association for this burgeoning, interdisciplinary field of studies. His books on Germany offer pathbreaking insights into how the country’s political elites attempted to master the Nazi and Holocaust past.  The Politics of Regret, has become a reference point for explaining why countries around the globe take up the challenge of confronting shameful histories.  From the The Collective Memory Reader to the six volume, A Cultural History of Memory, Jeff has helped compile a cannon of readings and an expansive history of collective memory.  A conversation with Jeff Olick about memory studies, the politics of memory in Germany, and the prospects for the politics of regret in the United States, next on the August 4th episode of the Realms of Memory podcast.