Monumental Conflicts Twentieth-Century Wars and the Evolution of Public Memory

Monumental Conflicts examines 20th century wars from the First World War to the First Gulf War, each chapter analyzing how public memory has evolved over time. The chapters raise fascinating questions about war and memory:

• Why are wars remembered as they are?
• What factors drive changes in public perception?
• What implications arise from remembering and commemorating a war or particular aspects of a war?
• What does public memory of a war say about us as a society?

The volume is divided into three sections focusing on political evolution, negotiated memories of war, and national pride and covers international wars from Afghanistan to Vietnam and German deserter monuments to Vietnamese war tourism.

1. Introduction Derek R. Mallett Section I: Monumental Conflicts: The Sacred and the Political 2. ’There Is Absolutely Nothing Like the Carving of Names’: Imperial War Graves Commission Sites and First World War Memory Hanna Smyth 3. War Mall: Civic Art, Memory, and War on America’s National Public Space William Thomas Allison 4. Re-Carving the Stone: Reinterpreting World War II Monuments in Brazil Uri Rosenheck 5. Memorializing the ‘Unknown Heroes’ of World War II: German Deserter Monuments Steven R. Welch Section II: Negotiated Memories of War 6. Emperors, Bones, and Dissonant Memories: Japanese Commemoration of the Battle for Peleliu Island Stephen C. Murray 7. Divided Nation, Divided Memories Brendan Wright 8. War Tourism and Geographies of Memory in Vietnam Christina Schwenkel Section III: Expeditionary Wars and National Pride 9. ’Curse you, Red Baron!’: World War I Aviation’s Impact on Popular Visions of Flight Guillaume de Syon 10. The British Public and the Falklands War Davide Borsani 11. Remembering the Soviet-Afghan War in Russia Roger R. Reese 12. The Persian Gulf War in American Popular Memory Robert T. Jones 13. Conclusion Derek R. Mallett

Derek R. Mallett is Assistant Professor of History at the US Army Command and General Staff College, Fort Gordon, USA. His publications include Hitler’s Generals in America: Nazi POWs and Allied Military Intelligence (2013).