Remembering Pinochet's Chile: On the Eve of London 1998

by Steve J. Stern

Book Overview

During the two years just before the 1998 arrest in London of General Augusto Pinochet, the historian Steve J. Stern had been in Chile collecting oral histories of life under Pinochet as part of an investigation into the form and meaning of memories of state-sponsored atrocities. In this compelling work, Stern shares the recollections of individual Chileans and draws on their stories to provide a framework for understanding memory struggles in history...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0822338165
• ISBN13: 9780822338161
• Release Date: September 2006
• Publisher: Duke University Press
• Length: 280 Pages
• Weight: 0.96 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.1" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Competing narratives give full picture of the issue

Steve Stern is probably the best regarded latin american historian in the western hemisphere. This book is not only about the events and the opinions leading up to the Sept 11, 1977 coup in Chile, but the problem of voice and narrative in historical texts. Stern effectively wrestles with the problem, providing not only a clear sense of personal stories of those living in chile prior to the coup, but providing a theoretical backbone to navigate the intense partisan narratives that swirl around the years of terror. Stern is highly skeptical of the "official" voice of history, whether or not it supports recent reforms in Chile. Indeed, his text is part of the larger process of restorative justice that brings all the competing narratives to the fore. There are still people who love and admire Pinochet and, while many would be tempted to scorn and omit their stories, Stern's text does not dismiss their important voices.