Polarized Pasts

Elisabeth Niklasson is Lecturer in Cultural Heritage at University of Aberdeen. She pursues research on EU heritage policy and the uses of the past by political parties in Scandinavia.

“This volume adds an important and highly original contribution to debates on the contested role of heritage, identities and belonging in European states in the 21st century. Focusing on the instrumental role of the past in polarizing debates about origins, ethnicity, and nationhood, the volume offers a compelling account about the rise of populism and right-wing movements in Europe and their engagement with heritage discourse to meet their political ends.” • Graeme Were, University of Bristol“This book is a timely contribution to a critical discussion on the political uses of heritage in polarized Western societies. It brings together thoughtfully written case studies in which the meaning-making of heritage is explored through racism, ethnonationalism, identity-building, and exclusive interpretations of the past.” • Tuuli Lähdesmäki, University of Jyväskylä

• List of IllustrationsIntroduction: Heritage and Belonging in Times of Political PolarizationElisabeth NiklassonChapter 1. Heritage, Memory, Race: The Culture of the Far RightChiara de CesariChapter 2. Innocence Reinvented: Far-Right Mythmaking in HungaryCathrine ThorleifssonChapter 3. Possessive Pasts: Heritage in Far-Right Rhetoric in ScandinaviaElisabeth Niklasson and Herdis HøllelandChapter 4. ‘Western Civilization’, White Supremacism and the Myth of a White Ancient GreeceRebecca Futo KennedyChapter 5. Memory between Repression and Deception: Germany’s Shattered StratigraphiesReinhard BernbeckChapter 6. Walking through the Darkest Valley: Heritage and Hatred in the Era of Reactionary PopulismAlfredo González-RuibalChapter 7. Is DNA a Dangerous Heritage?Chip ColwellChapter 8. The Sigtuna Debacle: A Story of Ancient DNA, Immigrants, and Fake News in a Viking Age Town in SwedenAnna KällénChapter 9. The Threat of Essence: Reflections on the Heritage of Racism and the Racism of HeritageMichael HerzfeldIndex