The Street Like Memory and Conflict [Barcelona, 1914-1923]

This article assesses the contribution of written testimony, memories & oral sources to the urban history of Barcelona during & after the First World War. Because historical consciousness is constituted at the local level, memories provide the historian with an important window onto the responses of distinct social classes to transformations in city life & to changes in the ways in which urban space is used. It concludes with a call for oral sources, testimony & memoirs to be brought to the heart of any historical investigation into space & for the unification of the practices & ideas of urban, social & oral history in order to address the culture of social classes in the city. Such an agenda has continuing relevance in Spain today, especially when we consider the ongoing quest to recuperate the memory of those who perished in the landscapes of repression established by Francoist violence & terror. Social history, with its concern with the everyday, has played a decisive role in situating the memories of the victims of Francoism, while local histories are central to 'mapping', remembering & recuperating repressed histories. Adapted from the source document.