Paper Cadavers

The Archives of Dictatorship in Guatemala

Nonfiction, History, Americas, Central America, Social & Cultural Studies, Political Science
Cover of the book Paper Cadavers by Kirsten Weld, Duke University Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Kirsten Weld ISBN: 9780822376583
Publisher: Duke University Press Publication: March 21, 2014
Imprint: Duke University Press Books Language: English
Author: Kirsten Weld
ISBN: 9780822376583
Publisher: Duke University Press
Publication: March 21, 2014
Imprint: Duke University Press Books
Language: English

In Paper Cadavers, an inside account of the astonishing discovery and rescue of Guatemala's secret police archives, Kirsten Weld probes the politics of memory, the wages of the Cold War, and the stakes of historical knowledge production. After Guatemala's bloody thirty-six years of civil war (1960–1996), silence and impunity reigned. That is, until 2005, when human rights investigators stumbled on the archives of the country's National Police, which, at 75 million pages, proved to be the largest trove of secret state records ever found in Latin America.

The unearthing of the archives renewed fierce debates about history, memory, and justice. In Paper Cadavers, Weld explores Guatemala's struggles to manage this avalanche of evidence of past war crimes, providing a firsthand look at how postwar justice activists worked to reconfigure terror archives into implements of social change. Tracing the history of the police files as they were transformed from weapons of counterinsurgency into tools for post-conflict reckoning, Weld sheds light on the country's fraught transition from war to an uneasy peace, reflecting on how societies forget and remember political violence.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

In Paper Cadavers, an inside account of the astonishing discovery and rescue of Guatemala's secret police archives, Kirsten Weld probes the politics of memory, the wages of the Cold War, and the stakes of historical knowledge production. After Guatemala's bloody thirty-six years of civil war (1960–1996), silence and impunity reigned. That is, until 2005, when human rights investigators stumbled on the archives of the country's National Police, which, at 75 million pages, proved to be the largest trove of secret state records ever found in Latin America.

The unearthing of the archives renewed fierce debates about history, memory, and justice. In Paper Cadavers, Weld explores Guatemala's struggles to manage this avalanche of evidence of past war crimes, providing a firsthand look at how postwar justice activists worked to reconfigure terror archives into implements of social change. Tracing the history of the police files as they were transformed from weapons of counterinsurgency into tools for post-conflict reckoning, Weld sheds light on the country's fraught transition from war to an uneasy peace, reflecting on how societies forget and remember political violence.

More books from Duke University Press

Cover of the book Racially Writing the Republic by Kirsten Weld
Cover of the book Racism Postrace by Kirsten Weld
Cover of the book The Crisis of Secularism in India by Kirsten Weld
Cover of the book Sex, or the Unbearable by Kirsten Weld
Cover of the book The Official World by Kirsten Weld
Cover of the book Never Say I by Kirsten Weld
Cover of the book The Voice and Its Doubles by Kirsten Weld
Cover of the book Natural Resource Policymaking in Developing Countries by Kirsten Weld
Cover of the book Reel World by Kirsten Weld
Cover of the book Constituting Americans by Kirsten Weld
Cover of the book Why the Vote Wasn't Enough for Selma by Kirsten Weld
Cover of the book Disciplining Statistics by Kirsten Weld
Cover of the book Diaspora's Homeland by Kirsten Weld
Cover of the book Tropical Renditions by Kirsten Weld
Cover of the book In Search of the Black Panther Party by Kirsten Weld
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy