The politics of official apologies /

This thoroughly researched, elegantly written study examines the role of official apologies through a comparative study of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the US. In recent years scholars have increasingly focused on issues of transitional justice and examined how different societies, following transitions to democracy or at the conclusion of civil wars, have dealt with past injustices. They have paid less attention to how established democracies have dealt with such injustices. Nobles (MIT) examines why minority groups demand apologies, why governments sometimes apologize, and what role apologies play in shaping political life. She argues that apologies are not influenced by electoral cycles or financial considerations. Rather, political elites support apologies because of ideology and moral reflection. Apologies, she contends, are a mechanism through which the terms of political debate are redefined, history is reexamined and reinterpreted, and the terms and meaning of national membership are redefined. Thus, Nobles argues, although apologies are a mechanism for addressing the past, they are also a way for political society to chart its future course. Summing Up: Recommended. General readers, upper-division undergraduates, graduate students, and research faculty. A. Paczynska George Mason University