Memory and Mythology: Modern War and the Construction of Historical Memory , 1775 - 2000

The volume provides a rare opportunity to launch a dialogue among historians working on the theme by examining different societies and chronological periods. It is often a case that the studies of the construction of memory of wars are geographically bound to specific countries. Such a focus narrows a historical inquiry to the experience of a single nation or a region and hinders a dialogue among historians. For instance, after the publication of seminal works by Paul Fussell and J.M.Winter, the construction of the memory of the Great War in Great Britain attracts a significant amount of scholarly attention. To launch a dialogue among historians working on the theme, this collection of essays analyzes the practices of war remembrance in France, the United States, Russia, and Germany. The essays investigate the complex dynamics of remembering the First the Second World Wars, the American Civil War and the Cold War; and ways how such wars affected social and political identity. The essays produce a fruitful exchange among scholars and allow to cross-examine the central issues in the studies of the construction of memory, i.e., the relationship between mythology and memory, the reminiscences of empires and wars, gender, and the importance of artifacts in commemorating wars.