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Beschrijving van de bijzondere partijcultuur van de ecologisch-sociaal democratische politieke partij PPR (Politieke Partij Radikalen), The text describes the specific political culture of the green socialist political party PPR (Politieke Partij Radikalen / Political Party Radicals).

Book Review

Politicians all over Europe used to write about their lives, and keep doing so. Like other well-known persons they are “unusual biographical subjects”, because the biographical activity concerning their lives often starts while they are still alive. (Frank 1999). On the one hand, classical autobiographies written by politicians themselves (and their co-authors or ghost-writers) are published widely and are not only an important part of the memory politics and the construction of national history, but also a contribution to the stabilization of gender conceptions.(Depkat 2014, p .247-265; Ulbrich, Jancke and Bosch 2013, p. 5). Often the (auto)biographers intend to contribute to political and historical analyses. On the other hand, life writing has changed and diversified rapidly during the 20th century. The widespread desire for authenticity and truth seems to be enormous, so we can see a process of democratization, including a change of the concepts of private and public spheres. Nowadays everybody is entitled to present his or her life in public.(Ulbrich, Jancke and Bosch 2013, p.5). Life writing took place not only in hard copy, but in many different media, like radio, film, tv, blogs, facebook and other new social media. So it seems a good moment to look at the (auto)biographies and memoirs in the political area during the 20th and the beginning of the 21th century.

This review aims to analyse Magnus Brechtken (Eds.), Life Writing and Political. Memoir- Lebenszeugnisse und Politische Memoiren.For anyone interested in political memoirs the question of their value and influence is intriguing. Of course, few will now believe that politicians’ memoirs and autobiographies should be taken as objective stories people can rely on. But how far can we go in indeed believing them? In other words, do politicians in general write the truth about themselves or is any political memoir whatsoever by definition an unreliable piece?

Politicians all over Europe used to write about their lives, and keep doing so. Like other well-known persons they are “unusual biographical subjects”, because the biographical activity concerning their lives often starts while they are still alive. (Frank 1999). On the one hand, classical autobiographies written by politicians themselves (and their co-authors or ghost-writers) are published widely and are not only an important part of the memory politics and the construction of national history, but also a contribution to the stabilization of gender conceptions.(Depkat 2014, p .247-265; Ulbrich, Jancke and Bosch 2013, p. 5). Often the (auto)biographers intend to contribute to political and historical analyses. On the other hand, life writing has changed and diversified rapidly during the 20th century. The widespread desire for authenticity and truth seems to be enormous, so we can see a process of democratization, including a change of the concepts of private and public spheres. Nowadays everybody is entitled to present his or her life in public.(Ulbrich, Jancke and Bosch 2013, p.5). Life writing took place not only in hard copy, but in many different media, like radio, film, tv, blogs, facebook and other new social media. So it seems a good moment to look at the (auto)biographies and memoirs in the political area during the 20th and the beginning of the 21th century.

Het bracht vele pennen in beweging toen Wouter Bos in 2010 besloot om zich niet meer herkiesbaar te stellen als leider van de Partij van de Arbeid, omdat hij meer aandacht wilde geven aan zijn gezin. Voorstanders prezen hem om zijn besluit; anderen, onder wie ook feministes, wantrouwden zijn motieven. Nog steeds zijn mannen vaak omstreden, zodra het om hun feminisme gaat.