Politicians frequently use historical references and analogies to support their political positions and policy programs. Sometimes legislative bodies act to interpret historical events, attempting to reshape the historical memory of controversial periods of the past.

Recently, French politicians have been again trying to court Armenian-French political backing by advocating a ban on denying the Armenian genocide. This is a subject that has been raised in France a number of times over the past decade, usually coinciding with anti-Turkish EU politics.

Meanwhile, German politicians are debating whether or not to allow the publication of portions of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf in their country, even as they celebrate the 300th anniversary of Frederick the Great’s birth (see my recent post).

The New York Times reports on how European politicians are “playing politics with history.”