Bill Niven
Bill Niven gained his MA and PhD from the University of St. Andrews. From 1984 to 1985, he worked at the University of Klagenfurt (Austria), before moving to Munich where he worked for Siemens until 1993. From 1993 to 1998, he was a lecturer in the German Department of Aberdeen University, before becoming Reader in History at NTU in 1998. He became Professor of Contemporary German History at NTU in 2005. He is now Professor Emeritus, having retired in 2020. He lives in Nottingham and Idar-Oberstein.
Address: West Bridgford, Nottingham, United Kingdom
Address: West Bridgford, Nottingham, United Kingdom
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Papers by Bill Niven
Yvonne Delhey und Carola Hähnel-Mesnard
essentially, that the history of memory in that, or indeed any other century cannot be
understood without taking into account the dialectical relationship between remembering
and forgetting—a relationship, admittedly, that we will never completely understand,
given that it is much easier to know what we remember, than it is to know what we have
forgotten, so that any appreciation of the connections behind the two processes is
inevitably inhibited. But that connection is perhaps less difficult to explore on a social
than on a personal level: there is always someone else who will remember, and want to
remember, what we, or others, forget or would prefer to forget. In the following, I
understand the political and social history of memory in the twentieth century as a
continual struggle against forgetting, a struggle in which memory – or, better, “recall,” as
forgotten or neglected events were forcefully retrieved and given public attention—
gradually seems to have asserted itself.
Yvonne Delhey und Carola Hähnel-Mesnard
essentially, that the history of memory in that, or indeed any other century cannot be
understood without taking into account the dialectical relationship between remembering
and forgetting—a relationship, admittedly, that we will never completely understand,
given that it is much easier to know what we remember, than it is to know what we have
forgotten, so that any appreciation of the connections behind the two processes is
inevitably inhibited. But that connection is perhaps less difficult to explore on a social
than on a personal level: there is always someone else who will remember, and want to
remember, what we, or others, forget or would prefer to forget. In the following, I
understand the political and social history of memory in the twentieth century as a
continual struggle against forgetting, a struggle in which memory – or, better, “recall,” as
forgotten or neglected events were forcefully retrieved and given public attention—
gradually seems to have asserted itself.
understood without taking into account the dialectical relationship between remembering and forgetting—a relationship, admittedly, that we will never completely understand, given that it is much easier to know what we remember, than it is to know what we have forgotten, so that any appreciation of the connections behind the two processes is inevitably inhibited. But that connection is perhaps less difficult to explore on a social
than on a personal level: there is always someone else who will remember, and want to remember, what we, or others, forget or would prefer to forget. In the following, I
understand the political and social history of memory in the twentieth century as a continual struggle against forgetting, a struggle in which memory – or, better, “recall,” as forgotten or neglected events were forcefully retrieved and given public attention — gradually seems to have asserted itself.