From the Moselle to the Pyrenees

Abstract

Memory debates in the twentieth century were determined very largely by war and the aftermath of conflict. The analysis of commemorative practice in historically problematic French frontier territories after 1918 offers insight into the way collective memory is constructed in a context of local-national tension which also impinges on, and is influenced by, what is commonly understood to be ‘cultural memory’. Post-1945, the impact of immigration and exile created the conditions for the emergence of new communities whose claims to a ‘duty of memory’ have shaped commemorative agendas in the last three decades.