On the limitations of memory and the persistence of war.
Dec 17 2016
People all over the world still see this war through the eyes of American soldiers because of the power of the American story. That is because the American war machine, the most powerful war machine on the planet, is matched by the American memory industry, the most powerful one on the planet as well. And it's no surprise because they both emerge from the same capitalist system.
Writer Viet Thanh Nguyen explores the ways war wins itself in the minds of the American public - from the erasure of conflict's economic roots and civilian victims alike, to the coercive power of the US memory industry to commodify and alter historical perspective - and warns that unless we radically revisit our understanding of wars past, they'll push us towards wars future.
Viet is author of the book Nothing Ever Dies: Vietnam and the Memory of War from Harvard University Press.
Guest
Viet Thanh Nguyen
Viet Thanh Nguyen is a writer and the Aerol Arnold Chair of English and Professor of English and American Studies and Ethnicity at the University of Southern California.
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