Generations and Collective Memory by Amy Corning and Howard Schuman (review)

If the sociological imagination is, as C. Wright Mills (2000 [1959]) famously articulated, to grasp the intersection between biography and history, then Amy Corning and Howard Schuman's collaborative inquiry exemplifies the very essence of sociology thinking. Generations and Collective Memory synthesizes nearly three decades of research on—you guessed it—the relationship between generations (or birth cohort) and the collective memory of historical events. But this straight forward title belies the more complicated, nuanced and, I would argue, interesting task of the book: "to understand how ordinary individuals recall, interpret, respond to, embrace, or disregard representations of the past." (13).

Through ten substantive chapters, the authors reveal that generation is one of many social factors that influence what national or world events individuals recall as especially important; race, region, gender, and education level (as well as how a survey is worded) may also have an impact. That said, the major emphasis of the book is undoubtedly to elaborate and refine what the authors describe as the critical years hypothesis: "that people are most affected by the national and world events they experience during late childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood, and that these effects show up as enduring memories of the past." (17).

The book is organized into three sections, each oriented in relation to the critical years hypothesis. Part 1, "Revising Collective Memories," considers important figures from the American past (Christopher Columbus, Abraham Lincoln, and Thomas Jefferson) to investigate how the memory of these individuals has been shaped over time, and what ordinary Americans believe about these figures in the present. Part 2, "The Critical Years and Other Sources of Collective Memory," provides substantial support for the critical years hypothesis based on studies conducted in eight countries in addition to the United States. Data presented in these chapters also, interestingly, challenged the authors to refine and expand their understanding of generational effects to include "lifetime effects," or when a structure-transforming event (see Sewell 2005) has a lasting impact on almost all those alive at that time. Part 3, "Beyond the Critical Years Affect," considers the limitations and other applications of the critical years hypothesis in the context of emigration, experiences of war, and autobiographical memories. In addition, this section explores whether and how commemoration (operationalized as media coverage of commemorations) contributes to collective memory.

While much of the data presented have been previously published, their synthesis in book form provides a convincing case for the critical years hypothesis—and even more importantly for the field of memory studies—a compelling argument for the continued focus on individuals as carriers of collective memory. The interdisciplinary field of memory studies, as Shuman and Corning (2000) have argued elsewhere, predominantly focuses on publicly available cultural symbols and consequently the elites who construct those representations. In contrast, Generations and Collective Memory exemplifies an entirely different, less common approach: an emphasis on memories of past events that are shared in the minds of ordinary folk. Woven throughout the text is a subtle critique of academic elitism and the clouded analytic lens that accompanies such hubris. One particularly enlightening example appears in chapter 9, where the authors reflect on their initially narrow coding of answers to the question "Who is Joseph McCarthy?" While the researchers were referring to the Wisconsin senator who claimed to pursue communists, the authors later realized that a local media personality, in addition to other notable individuals, shared the same name and were thus "correct" answers. This example demonstrates not only the potential pitfalls of "academic provincialism" (185), but also the candor with which Corning and Schuman reflect on methodological challenges.

The methodological depth and breadth of this work is impressive. The authors draw on data from extensive survey research collected over many decades, as well as content analysis of historical documents and media sources. They conduct statistical analysis, qualitative historical analysis, and even natural experiments. Furthermore, they have been able to replicate their findings over and over again. Perhaps most helpful...