This book started as a study of the theory and practice of anniversary commemorations in Europe and the United States during the 1980s. As a historian attending conferences in Western Europe and the United States, throughout the decade I noticed how many symposia, exhibitions, television shows, and newspaper articles invoked anniversaries for their justification. From the 500th anniversary of the painter Raphael in 1983 to the bicentennial of the American Constitution in 1987 to the bicentennial of Mozarts death in 1991, an astonishing number of cultural events today take their origin in an anniversary. Some unfold worldwide like the tricentennial of Bach, Handel, and Scarlatti in 1985 or the bicentennial of the French Revolution in 1989, and some occur locally like the tricentennial of Philadelphia in 1982 or the bimillennium of the German city of Bonn in 1989.
The more I examined the range and depth of cultural commemorations during the 1980s, the more I became convinced that they deserve a general explanation. When and where did the cult of anniversaries originate? Why has it flowered during the 1980s? Why does it take different forms in Western Europe than in the United States? How much longer will it last? These are some of the questions that this book addresses.
As I proceeded to compare European and American commemorations, I became aware that the heyday of anniversaries during the 1980s has coincided with the rise of the mentality known as postmodern. In exploring how anniversary commemorations fit postmodern assumptions, I hit upon a major theme of the book: the cult of anniversaries reinforces the concerns of postmodernism. Whether postmodernism is defined as a mode of creativity that refuses to vie with previous avantgardes, or simply as a playful recombining of disparate elements, it finds anniversaries an ideal vehicle for reassessing past authorities. We commemorate what we no longer wish to emulate.
Having connected the cult of anniversaries with the rise of postmodern consciousness, I began to weigh a more daunting question: Does the cult of anniversaries shed light on what will follow postmodernism? Nearly every writer on contemporary culture agrees that postmodernism is a transitional phenomenon. To label a mentality in relation to its predecessor is to suggest planned obsolescence. Even the most ardent postmoderns do not expect that mentality to prevail for long. Yet a characteristic of postmodernism is reluctance to speculate about what lies ahead. Openness to every nuance of opinion deters postmoderns from specifying future directions. By relying on the calendar to set priorities, the cult of anniversaries exemplifies post-modern distrust of authority, and such a lack of direction reinforces the refusal to predict a next stage.
Postmodernism probably cannot last much longer, at least not without a new name, yet few of its devotees wish to speculate on what will ensue. A study of the cult of anniversaries can fill this gap in two ways. First, because anniversaries depend on the calendar, they dramatize times onward march. The cult of anniversaries makes one so keenly aware of shifts in taste that it forces one to ask how much longer post-modernism can endure. Second, the calendar holds a surprise in store for everyone. The 1990s will culminate in an unprecedented event: the end of the second millennium and the arrival of the third. As soon as one starts to imagine how the shift from 1999 to the years 2000 and 2001 will affect attitudes worldwide, one can see that the Great Climax will evoke, however fleetingly, some kind of new consciousness. The years 2000 and 2001 will unleash preoccupation with crisis and renewal sufficient to put postmodernism in the shade. It seems not unlikely, therefore, that postmodernism will one day be seen as a transition to bimillennial consciousness.
The cult of anniversaries interlocks with the bimillennium not least because that calendric shift will incorporate multiple anniversaries within it. During the year 2000, people will commemorate the arrival of the first millennium in the year 1000, as well as the turn of the years 500 and 1500, not to mention the inception of the notion of anno domini in the mid-sixth century. By contemplating this prospect I arrived at the major thesis of the book: the surest way to forecast the impact of the bimillennium is to examine the cultural anniversaries that will precede it. The bimillennium will evoke an unprecedented response, not least because cultural anniversaries have proliferated so widely during the years preceding it. The years 2000 and 2001 will be experienced as the climax of a quarter century of historical celebrations. The assumptions that characterize anniversary commemorations during the 1980s and 1990s will culminate in unheard of extravaganzas during the year 2000. That is why the cult of anniversaries is worth examining now, before the onset of the bimillennium starts to reshape it.
Having begun as a study of the contemporary cult of anniversaries, this book evolved to include proposals on how to make forthcoming anniversaries enrich the bimillennium. Part One analyzes reasons for the popularity of anniversaries during the 1980s, connecting them with postmodernism, with the need for long-term rhythms, and with the quest for national identity. Contrasts in modes of cultural planning between Western Europe and the United States loom large in this analysis, as does the role of commercial interests in shaping a commemoration industry. Part Two applies categories from Part One to the task of planning anniversaries during the 1990s. It proposes ways to use anniversaries more imaginatively so as to prepare for the bimillennium and to exploit the ferment that the end of a calendric era will bring. If Part One connects the cult of anniversaries with postmodernism, Part Two connects it with bimillennial consciousness.