Displaced archives have long been a problem and their existence continues to trouble archivists, historians and government officials. Displaced Archives brings together leading international experts to comprehensively explore the current state of affairs for the first time. Drawing on case studies from around the world, the authors examine displaced archives as a consequence of conflict and colonialism, analysing their impact on government administration, nation building, human rights and justice. Renewed action is advocated through considerations of the legal approaches to repatriation, the role of the international archival community, ‘shared heritage’ approaches and other solutions. The volume offers new theoretical, technical and political insights and will be essential reading for practitioners, academics and students in the field of archives, cultural property and heritage management, as well as history, politics and international relations.
Forward
Eric Ketelaar
Introduction: Displaced Archives
James Lowry
1. Archives Seizures: The Evolution of International Law
Charles Kecskeméti
2. Making Sovereignty and Affirming Modernity in the Archives of Decolonisation: The Algeria-France ‘Dispute’ between the Post-Decolonisation French and Algerian Republics, 1962-2015
Todd Shepard
3. Displaced Archives in The National Archives of the United Kingdom
Mandy Banton
4. Indonesian National Revolution Records in the National Archives of the Netherlands
Michael Karabinos
5. Hiding the European Colonial Past: A Comparison of Archival Policies
Vincent Hiribarren
6. Revisiting Expatriate Archives
Timothy Lovering
7. A Proposal for Action on African Archives in Europe
Nathan Mnjama and James Lowry
8. Displaced Archives in the Wake of Wars
Leopold Auer
9. Pan-European Displaced Archives in the Russian Federation: Still Prisoners of War on the 70th Anniversary of V-E Day
Patricia Kennedy Grimsted
10. Iraq and Kuwait: The Seizure and Destruction of Historical Patrimony
Bruce Montgomery
11. Networking Records in Their Diaspora: A Reconceptualisation of Displaced Records in a Postnational World
Anne J. Gilliland
12. Revisiting the Law and Politics of Compromise
Douglas Cox
Biography
James Lowry is a Lecturer in the Liverpool University Centre for Archive Studies, UK.
"The essays range in depth and detail but all of them address their selected topic with well-referenced research and present the current state of various situations where archives are under dispute [...] This book is a very academic compilation bringing together a range of scholars with a varied range of specialisms across the world touching on Iraq, Africa, Indonesia, South Korea and Russia and their connections and contentions with Europe and America."
Alex Fitzgerald, Standard Life Aberdeen plc, Edinburgh, UK