Collective Memories in Britain and the United States

Abstract

In this article we investigate the events and changes that the British and American public regard as important. We argue that national differences in perceptions of past events and changes might lead to different evaluations of recent history. Our data are from a 1990 probability sample of British households in which respondents were asked to report “the national or world events or changes over the past 60 years” that seemed to them especially important and, then, to explain the reasons for their choices. These questions replicated items from an earlier American survey on the Intersection of Personal and National History. The data are used both qualitatively and quantitatively to compare British and American views of recent history. Overall, the two nations have remarkably similar views on which events are important, and there are also striking similarities in the way British and American choices are structured by cohort. However, interesting national differences emerge in the meaning associated with World War II, the most frequently mentioned event. We discuss the implications of such distinctive memories for public opinion.

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