is a member of the Centre for Comparative Literature at the University of Toronto.
The comparison of genocides is neither a crude equation nor an equivalence of evil, argues historian Ugur Ümit Üngör. Rather, comparative study enhances understanding of individual cases and counters political manipulation of genocide under hierarchies of uniqueness.
Opposition to last year’s Prague Declaration on “European Conscience and Totalitarianism” reveals a change of attitude on the part of western Europe towards the East, writes Violeta Davoliute. Western fears about an upsurge of ultra-nationalism in eastern Europe suggests the era of democratic idealism has come to an end.
In order to give the people normally overlooked in history the credit she feels they deserve, Natalie Zemon Davis has developed her own methods of documenting history, which focus on the “lower orders” rather than political and religious figures. “What I care about is having found ways to get evidence for and tell the stories of people often passed unnoticed or treated as a statistic – to make their stories speak to bigger issues in historical life and change.”
