Defeat and memory : cultural histories of military defeat in the modern era / edited by Jenny Macleod.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Macleod, Jenny.

Sabin W. Colton, Jr., Memorial Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Military history, Modern.

Collective memory.

Defeat (Psychology).

Physical Description:

ix, 259 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Basingstoke [England] ; New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2008.

Summary:

From Appomattox Courthouse to the Hall of Mirrors at the Versailles Palace, from the beaches of Dunkirk to the toppling of the statue of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad, the moment of victory in any conflict, whether temporary or definitive, has and will always incorporate an equally powerful moment of defeat. History may be written by the victors, but it is lived equally by the vanquished. These detailed case studies of the manner in which military defeat has been remembered range from the Napoleonic Wars to Vietnam. They encompass seven different countries and the experiences of diverse individuals, from expatriated White Russians to thwarted kamikaze pilots. They utilize a rich range of sources, including school textbooks, war memorials, and advertisements. In aggregate, they reveal a number of recurring themes: the rituals of humiliation, the influence of the Christian belief in sacrifice and redemption, and the enduring myths of the stab-in-the-back and the Lost Cause.

Contents:

2 Defeat and Memory in Modern History / John Horne 11

Temporary Defeat

3 Defeat and Foreign Rule as a Narrative of National Rebirth - The German Memory of the Napoleonic Period in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries / Christian Koller 30

4 From Heroic Defeat to Mutilated Victory: The Myth of Caporetto in Fascist Italy / Vanda Wilcox 46

Definitive Defeat

5 The Taboos of Defeat: Unmentionable Memories of the Franco-Prussian War in France, 1870-1914 / Karine Varley 62

Total Defeat

6 Religious War, German War, Total War: The Shadow of the Thirty Years' War on German War Making in the Twentieth Century / Kevin Cramer 81

7 The Stories of Defeated Aggressors: International History, National Identity and Collective Memory after 1945 / Patrick Finney 97

8 Defeat, Due Process, and Denial: War Crimes Trials and Nationalist Revisionism in Comparative Perspective / Donald Bloxham 117

9 Memory of War and War Crimes: Japanese Historical Consciousness and the Tokyo Trial / Madoka Futamura 137

10 Japanese War Veterans and Kamikaze Memorialization: A Case Study of Defeat Remembrance as Revitalization Movement / M. G. Sheftall 154

Internal Defeat

11 Confederate Defeat and Cultural Expressions of Memory, 1877-1940 / Karen L. Cox 175

12 Gallipoli to Golgotha: Remembering the Internment of the Russian White Army at Gallipoli, 1920-3 / Anatol Shmelev 195

Partial Defeat

13 The Memory of French Military Defeat at Dien Bien Phu and the Defence of French Algeria / Stephen Tyre 214

14 The Enduring Paradigm of the 'Lost Cause': Defeat in Vietnam, the Stab-in-the-Back Legend, and the Construction of a Myth / Jeffrey Kimball 233.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Sabin W. Colton, Jr., Memorial Fund.

ISBN:

9780230517400

0230517404

OCLC:

154788674