Remembering the Malvinas/Falklands War: National, generational, and ideological differences

Abstract

A recurrent topic in collective memory studies is war, more specifically, global wars such as War World II. In this study, we investigate the collective memory of a less global war, the Malvinas–Falklands War between Argentina and Britain. The war and the territorial claims that motivated it still figure in public discourse in Argentina, but less dramatically in Britain. As a result, the generational cohort effects characterizing intergenerational collective memory might be less marked among Argentines. To test this claim, we assessed the memories of Argentines and Britons for the Malvinas War, employing both free and cued recall, across two generations and different political ideologies. Many of the generational differences established in the extant empirical studies were found but were generally less marked for Argentines. Ideology had little effect. The results are discussed in terms of how continued engagement with the causes of a war can mitigate generational differences.