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Frontmatter -- Preface -- Contents -- Introduction -- 1. Prerequisites -- 2. A Sociocultural Approach to Mind -- 3. Beyond Vygotsky: Bakhtin's Contribution -- 4. The Multivoicedness of Meaning -- 5. The Heterogeneity of Voices -- 6. Sociocultural Setting, Social Languages, and Mediated Action -- References -- Name Index -- Subject Index

'How Nations Remember' asks how it is that entire nations can have such different views of the past. These are differences over specific events such as World War II, but they also take the form of different mental habits that shape national memory more generally. Drawing on psychology, anthropology, literary studies, and other disciplines, and on illustrations from Russia, America, China, and Georgia, the author examines notions such as 'narrative templates', 'narrative dialogism', and 'privileged event narratives' that shape national memory, and concludes by outlining strategies for managing its destructive consequences.

There is currently a great deal of discussion in the humanities and social sciences about collective memory, but there is very little agreement on what it is. The first goal of this volume is to review various understandings of this term to bring some coherence to the discussion. Drawing on this review, James V. Wertsch goes on to outline a particular version of collective remembering grounded in the use of 'textual resources', especially narratives. This takes him into the special properties of narrative that shape this process and into the issues of how these textual resources are produced and consumed. Wertsch brings these general ideas to life by examining the rapid, massive transformation of collective memory during the transition from Soviet to post-Soviet Russia

The dynamics of collective remembering are examined by analyzing what happens when a "blank spot" in history is filled with information that had previously not been available or publicly acknowledged. Taking Russian accounts of the secret protocols of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact of 1939 as a case study, it is argued that "schematic narrative templates" that shape deep collective memory give rise to a tendency to maintain this memory and help it overcome the "narrative rift" that occurs when embarrassing episodes from the past are publicly acknowledged. Schematic narrative templates are set forth as underlying strong conservative forces that resist change in collective memory at a deep level. It is suggested that debates grounded in formal history may help overcome this resistance to change but that such efforts will be limited as long as the forces of deep collective memory are not recognized.

The dynamics of collective remembering are examined by analyzing what happens when a "blank spot" in history is filled with information that had previously not been available or publicly acknowledged. Taking Russian accounts of the secret protocols of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact of 1939 as a case study, it is argued that "schematic narrative templates" that shape deep collective memory give rise to a tendency to maintain this memory and help it overcome the "narrative rift" that occurs when embarrassing episodes from the past are publicly acknowledged. Schematic narrative templates are set forth as underlying strong conservative forces that resist change in collective memory at a deep level. It is suggested that debates grounded in formal history may help overcome this resistance to change but that such efforts will be limited as long as the forces of deep collective memory are not recognized. [Reprinted by permission of Sage Publications Inc., copyright 2008 The American Academy of Political and Social Science.]