The Institute for European Studies and Čigoja Press have just jointly published the book of essays Historiography, Nationalism and Identity, authored by the prominent German historian Stefan Berger (1964), professor at the Ruhr University and director of the Institute for Social Movements in Bochum. Stefan Berger is an influential expert in social history as well as in the history of modern historiography, which he approaches from a comparative and transnational perspective. The book was edited by Professor Michael Antolović, who also translated the texts from English and wrote an afterword dedicated to Berger’s scholarly persona.
In this collection of essays, with which Berger presents himself to the Serbian academic public for the first time, he raises a multitude of questions, such as the role of myths in the creation of national identities, ’father figures’ in national historiographies, the advanced process of renationalization of the past, widespread stereotypes in historical discourse, the relationship between history and memory, as well as the problem of (in)adequate dealing with traumatic experiences from the history of the 20th century. All these questions lead readers to make comparisons with the role of scientific historiography in Serbian but also in other post-Yugoslav societies. Despite the fact that more than three decades have passed since the collapse of Yugoslavia, they still fail to adequately address numerous controversial phenomena from the history of the unsuccessful national integration of the South Slavic peoples. In this sense, especially for younger generations of historians, the innovative works of Stefan Berger can undoubtedly serve as an incentive and as one of the possible signposts in overcoming the heavy burden of ’a past that will not pass away.’
