Understanding the cultures, mentalities, and ideas that have shaped the modern world
Agenda
18 January 2017
15:15 - 17:00
Raadzaal, Pietershof, Achter Sint Pieter 200, Utrecht
Utrecht Historical Lecture Series: Ian Buruma, A return to normality? Jews, English, Dutch and Germans in 1945
The twentieth century is a most violent period, yet its impact has been very different for different groups in
society. Ever since his study The Wages of Guilt: Memories of War in Japan and Germany (Farrar, Straus, Giroux,1995), Ian Buruma has reflected on the various ways in which societies – notably societies of perpetrators of violence – have dealt with the cruelties of the past and the present. In his two most recent books, Buruma has focused on the personal experiences of people in war. In Their Promised Land: My Grandparents in Love and War (Penguin USA, 2016), Buruma analyzes the experiences of an assimilated Jewish family in England between 1915 and 1945, through the eyes and letters of his maternal grandparents. In Year Zero: A History of 1945 (Penguin USA, 2013), Buruma depicts the varieties of despair and revenge, as well as the glimmers of hope in the final year of the Second World War. In this meeting, Buruma will engage in a discussion with the audience on his approach to the personal and social history of war and violence in the twentieth century.
For students who want to contribute to the discussion with Buruma on 18 January, a preparatory meeting is held on 12 January, 3:15-5:00 PM (place to be announced). If you are interested, read Year Zero: A History of 1945 (Penguin USA, 2013) and/or Their Promised Land: My Grandparents in Love and War (Penguin USA, 2016), so that we can discuss which topics we want to adress in our conversation with Buruma on 18 January. Please give notice of your participation in this preparatory meeting via i.dehaan@uu.nl.
Ian Buruma is Paul W. Williams Professor of Democracy, Human Rights, and Journalism at Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY, and has been a Fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg, Berlin, the Woodrow Wilson Center, Washington D.C., St. Antony’s College, Oxford, and Remarque Institute, NYU. Ian Buruma was educated in Holland and Japan, where he studied history, Chinese literature, and Japanese cinema.
In 1970s Tokyo, he acted in Kara Juro’s Jokyo Gekijo and participated in Maro Akaji’s butoh dancing company Dairakudakan, followed by a career in documentary filmmaking and photography. In the 1980s, he worked as a journalist, and spent much of his early writing career travelling and reporting from all over Asia.
Buruma now writes about a broad range of political and cultural subjects for major publications, most frequently for The New York Review of Books, The New Yorker, The New York Times, and The Guardian, La Repubblica, NRC Handelsblad.
For more information about Ian Buruma, you can click here.
