ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces why the ways in which we represent history – our collective memory – matters for the present, and especially for how we understand the social world. Most of the research on collective memory has shown that we tend to glorify our collective past and construct (often nationalist) myths to show the social groups to which we belong in the best of light. In contrast, this introduction uses an example from the historical arguments made online around Brexit to argue that people can also actively think about history and be critical about its uses.
