The "Good War" in American Memory
Published on 26. November 2010
Book
Hardback
320 pages
978-0-8018-9667-5 (ISBN)
Description
The "Good War" in American Memory dispels the long-held myth that Americans forged an agreement on why they had to fight in World War II. John Bodnar's sociocultural examination of the vast public debate that took place in the United States over the war's meaning reveals that the idea of the "good war" was highly contested. Bodnar's comprehensive study of the disagreements that marked the American remembrance of World War II in the six decades following its end draws on an array of sources: fiction and nonfiction, movies, theater, and public monuments. He identifies alternative strands of memory-tragic and brutal versus heroic and virtuous-and reconstructs controversies involving veterans, minorities, and memorials. In building this narrative, Bodnar shows how the idealism of President Franklin Roosevelt's Four Freedoms was lost in the public commemoration of World War II, how the war's memory became intertwined in the larger discussion over American national identity, and how it only came to be known as the "good war" many years after its conclusion.
Reviews / Votes
The comprehensiveness and scope of Bodnar's research makes [ The "Good War" in American Memory] a fine addition to an expanding body of work that seeks to complicate a consensus view of the war and that work toward a polysemic understanding of the past. -- Andrew Salvati H-Net Reviews 2011 This engaging and well-written book addresses not just World War II but has implications for war remembrance more generally. Bodnar's analysis speaks powerfully to how cultures of nationalism and of war can become challenged amidst the heartbreak of massive death-and then to how easily such challenges may be forgotten and displaced by heroic narratives. -- Emily S. Rosenberg Cercles 2011 John Bodnar provides a corrective lens for those whose recent myopia accepts the celebratory effect of... traditional treatments of American participation in World War II... What Bodnar has adamantly recovered is the faded suffering of family members whose loved ones were buried overseas or never found, and the memories of veterans who could not escape the confusion and frustration. -- Michael Kammen Journal of American History 2011More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Baltimore, MD
United States
Illustrations
12 s/w Photographien bzw. Rasterbilder
12 Halftones, black and white
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 26 mm
Weight
567 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-8018-9667-5 (9780801896675)
DOI
10.1353/book.497
Copyright in bibliographic data is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or its licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
John Bodnar
The "Good War" in American Memory
Book
03/2012
Johns Hopkins University Press
€35.60
Article not available at the moment
John Bodnar
The "Good War" in American Memory
E-Book
11/2010
Johns Hopkins University Press
€20.99
Available for download
Person
John Bodnar is the Chancellor's Professor of History and the director of the Institute for Advanced Study at Indiana University. He has authored or edited nine other books, including Blue-Collar Hollywood: Liberalism, Democracy, and Working People in American Film, also published by Johns Hopkins.
Content
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Wartime
2. Soldiers Write the War
3. "No Place for Weaklings"
4. Monuments and Mournings
5. The Split Screen
6. The Outsiders
7. The Victors
Conclusion
Postscript on Iraq
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index
Introduction
1. Wartime
2. Soldiers Write the War
3. "No Place for Weaklings"
4. Monuments and Mournings
5. The Split Screen
6. The Outsiders
7. The Victors
Conclusion
Postscript on Iraq
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index