Victimhood Nationalism
Book • 2025
Jie-Hyun Lim examines how historical memories of suffering—colonialism, the Holocaust, and Stalinist terror—are instrumentalized by nationalist movements to claim moral authority and political legitimacy.
Drawing on cases including Poland, Germany, Israel, Korea, and Japan, he traces processes by which victims are reframed as sacred sacrifices and how perpetrators sometimes recast themselves as victims.
The book analyzes transnational entanglements of memory, showing how Holocaust memory is mobilized globally and sometimes appropriated to other contexts.
Lim argues for challenging zero-sum victimhood competitions through critical relativization, radical juxtaposition, and practices of transnational forgiveness.
His work combines theoretical reflection with empirical case studies to propose pathways toward reconciliation and mutual understanding.
Drawing on cases including Poland, Germany, Israel, Korea, and Japan, he traces processes by which victims are reframed as sacred sacrifices and how perpetrators sometimes recast themselves as victims.
The book analyzes transnational entanglements of memory, showing how Holocaust memory is mobilized globally and sometimes appropriated to other contexts.
Lim argues for challenging zero-sum victimhood competitions through critical relativization, radical juxtaposition, and practices of transnational forgiveness.
His work combines theoretical reflection with empirical case studies to propose pathways toward reconciliation and mutual understanding.
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Leslie Hickman
Jie-Hyun Lim
Jie-Hyun Lim, "Victimhood Nationalism: History and Memory in a Global Age" (Columbia UP, 2025)
