Series 1, Episode 47: Why do we forget history? And why do we remember it? with Professor Guy Beiner, Boston College

The question of why we forget history has never been more relevant – only a few short years ago almost nobody had heard of the so-called “Spanish Flu” pandemic of 1918-1919. Yet with advent of COVID-19 we all became familiar with the history of that and other pandemics.But when we consider the forgetting of history, an even more important question emerges which has relevance for us all: why do we remember history? And what does this tell us about ourselves and how we view ourselves, our past and our present?Professor Guy Beiner is the Sullivan Chair in Irish Studies at Boston College where he specializes in the historical study of remembering and forgetting. Other interests include oral history, folklore, public history and heritage, historiography, terrorism and the so called ‘Spanish’ Influenza pandemic. His books on history, memory and forgetting in Ireland have won multiple international awards.Professor Beiner was previously professor of modern history at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel and has held research fellowships at Trinity College Dublin, University of Notre Dame, Central European University, University of Oxford, as well being a former Burns Scholar at Boston College. Professor Beiner's most recent book – Pandemic Re-Awakenings: The Forgotten and Unforgotten ‘Spanish’ Flu of 1918-1919 – was published by Oxford University Press in 2022. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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