Long Shadows: Truth, Lies and History - Softcover

Paris, Erna

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1582342105 ISBN 13: 9781582342108

Publisher: Bloomsbury USA, 2002

Synopsis

Winner of the Pearson Writers' Trust Non-Fiction Prize, the inaugural Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for political writing, and the Dorothy Shoichet Prize for History from the Canadian Jewish Book Awards.

One of the most urgent issues facing the world today is how countries shape historical memory in the aftermath of calamity, making decisions that cast long shadows into the future. Combining gripping storytelling with sharp observation, Erna Paris takes us on an extraordinary journey through four continents to explore how nations reinvent themselves after cataclysmic events. She travels through the United States, with its long-buried memory of slavery; to South Africa, where the Truth and Reconciliation Commission struggles to heal the wounds left by apartheid; to Japan, France, and Germany, where the unresolved pain of Hiroshima and the Holocaust still resonate; and to the former Yugoslavia, where she exposes the cynical shaping of historical memory. Through its insightful analysis, Long Shadows compels us to question where we stand as individuals in relation to our own collective histories.

About this title

From the Publisher

'I would love to see this book taught in every history class in America.' -Iris Chang, author of The Rape of Nanking
'Enlightening...Riveting...Paris raises questions of enormous importance.' -Kirkus
'...convincingly demonstrates that memory is not only selective but subject to calculated efforts to serve personal needs and national interests.' -The Christian Science Monitor
'Paris gives us a rich, if painful, inventory of the recent, dubious uses to which we are putting the past.' -Washington Post Book World

From the Back Cover

"The reader is changed forever by reading Long Shadows. Working one's way through this book is akin to listening to complete symphonies of Gustav Mahler in a single sitting—an overwhelming experience, one that raises the profound philosophical questions of our time. Paris's analysis and storytelling talents never let the reader go. Deeply moving." —Quill and Quire

“[an] ambitious…superb work of popular history and thought. [a] brilliantly conceived quest… Long Shadows is simply first-rate writing…an intellectual triumph, in its refusal to succumb to denial and its hopeful faith that it’s better to know.” —Stan Persky, Vancouver Sun

"[Erna] Paris…intelligently examines [memory] within the context of national remembrance." — Canadian Jewish News

"[ Long Shadows] rings with the moral authority of a voice raised in defence of human rights and cries out for no-amnesty accountability for war crimes." — Montreal Gazette

"[a] powerful and sombre book…Paris’s belief in an honest search for the facts…is admirable and ultimately inspiring." — The Globe and Mail

”[Paris] walks with a keen eye, a journalist’s skill at detail…a high intelligence and a deft pen…. [A] timely contribution.” — Ottawa CItizen

About this edition

• Publisher: Bloomsbury USA
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 1582342105
• ISBN 13: 9781582342108
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 496