Trousson, Raymond / Vercruysse, Jeroom (dir.), Dictionnaire general de Voltaire. (Champion classiques, references et dictionnaires 18) 1272 p. 2020:10 (Champion, FR) <670-9>
ISBN 978-2-38096-016-7 paper ¥7,064.- (税込) EUR 38.00

De Baets, Antoon, A Human Rights View of the Past. (Elements in Historical Theory and Practice) 80 pp. 2025:1 (Cambridge U. Pr., UK) <744-564>
ISBN 978-1-009-54785-7 hard ¥14,076.- (税込) GB￡ 49.99 *
ISBN 978-1-009-34594-1 paper ¥4,787.- (税込) GB￡ 17.00 *

The idea of human rights has been much criticized from a historical perspective but curiously enough its theoretical and practical contributions to the study of time, memory, and history have never been systematically explored. How is it to look at the past from a human rights perspective? How can historical writing benefit from applying human rights logic? In tackling these questions, the book first clarifies what a human rights view of the past is. The constituent dimensions of the past - time, memory, and history - are then reviewed, indicating what a human rights perspective can add to the study of each. Finally, the benefits accruing from a human rights view of the past to historical theory and practice are highlighted.

Lotem, Itay, Dealing with Dark Pasts: A European History of Auto-Critical Memory in Global Perspective. (Elements in Historical Theory and Practice) 88 pp. 2025:1 (Cambridge U. Pr., UK) <744-1339>
ISBN 978-1-009-50740-0 hard ¥14,076.- (税込) GB￡ 49.99 *
ISBN 978-1-009-11414-1 paper ¥4,787.- (税込) GB￡ 17.00 *

Since the end of the Second World War, the political rationale to remember the past has shifted from previous focus on states' victories, as these began commemorating their own historical crimes. This Element follows the rise of 'auto-critical memory', or the politics of remembrance of a country's own dark past. The Element explores the idea's gestation in West Germany after the Second World War, its globalisation through initiatives of 'transitional justice' in the 1990s, and present-day debates about how to remember the colonial past. It follows different case studies that span the European continent - including Germany, France, Britain, Poland and Serbia - and places these in a global context that traces the circulation of ideas of auto-critical memory. Ultimately, as it follows the emergence of demands for social and racial justice, the Element questions the usefulness of memory to achieve the goals many political actors ascribe to it.