In my dissertation, I analyze the implications of public memories used to encourage the forgetting of women veterans’ war efforts and offer up a critical praxis of remembering differently in order to challenge normative memorial practices. Remembering differently is informed by rhetorical and feminist theories because it is a critical performance that reclaims forgotten memories; interrogates systems of power, such as gender; and seeks to add to, edit, reread, and remember public memories of individuals who have been silenced, erased, and appropriated. I argue that prevailing war memorialization of women bolsters nationalistic and patriarchal ideologies by framing female veterans as only being trailblazing patriots who have broken the glass ceiling, while downplaying servicewomen’s lived experiences with PTSD, sexual assault, sexism, and job discrimination in the military. As a result, these depoliticized memories reinforce hegemonic beliefs that situate social, political, and economical injustices in the past rather than as present day concerns. In each chapter, I analyze how U.S. female veterans are remembering differently their military experiences with personal memories of war in public performances. The veterans’ acts of commemoration move beyond the heroic narrative of warriors breaking down barriers and interrogate issues relevant to female soldiers like sexism, assault, job discrimination, PTSD, and homelessness. My thesis is not simply advocating for “more remembering” in order to achieve some semblance of equality, because I do not believe more representation necessarily results in more pronounced individual rights. Rather, my purpose is to examine the rhetorical functions, opportunities, and constraints of remembering differently, in particular, for female veterans who are actively articulating patriotic and dissenting commemorative discourses.

In April 1989, four months after a German citizens’ initiative proposed construction of a central memorial to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust, Romani Rose, chair of the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma, published a petition demanding inclusion of the Sinti and Roma victims into the same memorial. Any other outcome, he wrote, would indicate a “hierarchy of victims” (die Zeit). The Berlin Wall fell seven months later, transforming the political and spatial dimensions of Germany’s commemorative landscape. So began a new phase of contestation – a national memorial project at its centre – over the so-called uniqueness of the (Jewish) Holocaust, and the moral and political responsibility of the newly reunified German state for genocide committed against Jewish and “other” victim groups. This dissertation draws on an entangled understanding of memory production in order to disentangle the social relations and identities that are mobilized in national memorial projects. I define entangled memory in two ways: (1) it refers to the interlinking of dominant memory and oppositional forms in the public sphere (Popular Memory Group 1998); (2) it is multidirectional in that the subjects and spaces of public memory are defined not only by a competition of victimhood but also as a product of influence and exchange (Rothberg 2009). This framework allows me to argue that the genocide of the Sinti and Roma – historically forgotten victims – is gradually gaining a foothold in the German national imaginary via the dominant status of the memorial to the Jewish victims. In turn, the positioning of the memorial dedicated to Jewish victims has been and continues to be influenced by the commemorative activities of other victim groups. German state legislation in 2009 to link up the memorials dedicated to Jewish, Sinti and Roma as well as homosexual victims – the country’s three national memorials – under one administrative roof is a recent example of an emergent memorial network in the country’s commemorative politics. It is here, I conclude, in the New Berlin’s geographic, symbolic, virtual and cartographic spaces of national memory that we are seeing increasing forms of recognition and integration of historically marginalized groups.

In April 1989, four months after a German citizens’ initiative proposed construction of a central memorial to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust, Romani Rose, chair of the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma, published a petition demanding inclusion of the Sinti and Roma victims into the same memorial. Any other outcome, he wrote, would indicate a “hierarchy of victims” (die Zeit). The Berlin Wall fell seven months later, transforming the political and spatial dimensions of Germany’s commemorative landscape. So began a new phase of contestation – a national memorial project at its centre – over the so-called uniqueness of the (Jewish) Holocaust, and the moral and political responsibility of the newly reunified German state for genocide committed against Jewish and “other” victim groups. This dissertation draws on an entangled understanding of memory production in order to disentangle the social relations and identities that are mobilized in national memorial projects. I define entangled memory in two ways: (1) it refers to the interlinking of dominant memory and oppositional forms in the public sphere (Popular Memory Group 1998); (2) it is multidirectional in that the subjects and spaces of public memory are defined not only by a competition of victimhood but also as a product of influence and exchange (Rothberg 2009). This framework allows me to argue that the genocide of the Sinti and Roma – historically forgotten victims – is gradually gaining a foothold in the German national imaginary via the dominant status of the memorial to the Jewish victims. In turn, the positioning of the memorial dedicated to Jewish victims has been and continues to be influenced by the commemorative activities of other victim groups. German state legislation in 2009 to link up the memorials dedicated to Jewish, Sinti and Roma as well as homosexual victims – the country’s three national memorials – under one administrative roof is a recent example of an emergent memorial network in the country’s commemorative politics. It is here, I conclude, in the New Berlin’s geographic, symbolic, virtual and cartographic spaces of national memory that we are seeing increasing forms of recognition and integration of historically marginalized groups.

In recent years, scholars have emphasized the importance of collective memory in the making of national identity. Where does death fit into the collective memory of American identity, particularly in the economic and social chaos of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries? How did death shape the collective memory of American national identity in the midst of a pluralism brought on by immigration, civil and labor rights, and a transforming culture? On the one hand, the commemorations of public figures such as Ulysses S. Grant, William McKinley, and Theodore Roosevelt constructed an identity based on Anglo-Saxonism, American imperialism, and the “Strenuous Life.” This was reflected in the burial of American soldiers of the Spanish American and Philippine American wars and the First World War. On the other hand, the commemorations of soldiers and sailors from the Civil War, Spanish American War, and Great War created opportunities to both critique and appropriate definitions of national identity. Through a series of case studies, my dissertation brings together cultural and political history to explore the (re)production and (trans)formation of American identity from the Civil War to the Great War. I am particularly interested in the way people used funerals and monuments as tools to produce official and vernacular memory. I argue that both official and vernacular forms of commemoration can help historians understand the social and political tensions of creating national identity in a burgeoning industrial and multicultural society.

This thesis examines German memories of the Vertriebene, the twelve million Germans who fled their homeland in the face of Russian invasion in the closing days of World War II. I explore the acceptable limits of victim discourse and consider the validity of arguments about German victimization in light of the atrocities committed by Germans during the war. Three chapters discuss diaspora, discourse and commemoration. I relate diaspora historiography to the Vertriebene and then dissect the discourse of the Bund der Vertriebenen and its construction of a German "victim mythos" that undermined more acceptable claims for the recognition of Germans victimhood. I then analyze debates over the suitable commemoration of German victims in academic discourse, fiction, and efforts to build a memorial to the Vertriebene. I conclude that some Germans can be considered legitimate victims of the war, but only when one also remembers the victims of Germans.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of History / Mark P. Parillo / War occupies an important place in the collective memory of the United States, with many of its defining moments centered on times of intense trauma. American memory of World War I, however, pales in comparison to the Civil War and World War II, which has led to the conflict’s categorization as a “forgotten” war—terminology that ignores the widespread commemorative efforts undertaken by Americans in the war’s aftermath. In fact, the interwar period witnessed a multitude of memorialization projects, ranging from architectural memorials to literature. It is this dichotomy between contemporary understanding and the reality of the conflict’s aftermath that is at the heart of this study, which seeks to illuminate the prominent position held by the First World War in early twentieth century American society. The dissertation examines three war memorials: the Liberty Memorial in Kansas City, Missouri; the District of Columbia World War Memorial in West Potomac Park, Washington, D.C.; and Kansas State University’s Memorial Stadium in Manhattan, Kansas. The work also analyzes seven volumes of soldier poetry, published between 1916 and 1921: Poems, by Alan Seeger; With the Armies of France, by William Cary Sanger, Jr.; Echoes of France: Verses from my Journal and Letters, March 14, 1918 to July 14, 1919 and Afterwards, by Amy Robbins Ware; The Tempering, by Howard Swazey Buck; Wampum and Old Gold, by Hervey Allen; The Log of the Devil Dog and Other Verses, by Byron H. Comstock; and Rhymes of a Lost Battalion Doughboy, by Lee Charles McCollum. Despite the presence of some thematic similarities between the two modes of remembrance, each mode had different objectives and audiences, contributing to the creation of distinct and competing forms of collective memory regarding American involvement in the Great War. Taken together, the two modes provide a more complete picture of American memorialization to World War I than if studied independently. This interdisciplinary approach to understanding commemorative efforts during the interwar period is vital to understanding the war and its legacy, and thus beneficial to both historical scholarship and the public.

This thesis explores the key permanent and temporary First World War exhibitions held at the Imperial War Museum in London over a fifty year period. In so doing, it examines the theoretical, political and intellectual considerations that inform exhibition-making. It thus illuminates the possibilities, challenges and difficulties, of displaying the 'War to End All Wars'. Furthermore, by situating these displays within their respective social, economic and cultural contexts, this produces a critical analysis of past and present practices of display. A study of these public presentations of the First World War enables discussion of the Museum’s primary agendas, and its role as a national public institution. In considering this with the broader effect of generational shifts and the ever-changing impact of the War’s cultural memory on this institution, the thesis investigates how the Imperial War Museum has consistently reinvented itself to produce engaging portrayals of the conflict for changing audiences.

This dissertation delineates the ways in which the political vicissitudes, economic restructuring and cultural fissures of the 1960s and 1970s shaped the commemoration of the Bicentennial of American Independence and elucidates how, in turn, the Bicentennial helped catalyze the eventual emergence of the cultural formations and political economy of neoliberalism. Using cultural studies frameworks to analyze archival policy memoranda, planning, curatorial and design records, journalistic accounts, photographs and audio-visual recordings, I demonstrate that the Bicentennial became a crucible in which Americans across the political spectrum reframed historical narratives, reconceived national identity and debated the proper role of the federal government. This study argues that political, economic and cultural elites mounted events that answered social movement demands for inclusiveness but contained their potential to effect radical change. The corporate sponsorships devised for Bicentennial projects profoundly expanded the role of corporations within the cultural sphere, enabling museums to adapt to the dismantling of the "welfare state" and laying the groundwork for the public-private partnerships that became the cornerstones of neoliberalism in the1980s. Chapter 1 examines a traveling Smithsonian exhibition, "Workers and Allies: Female Participation in the American Trade Union Movement 1824-1876," to illuminate the challenges of conducting public history in a moment when national narratives are highly contested. Chapter 2 argues that the Nixon administration imposed its overriding policy agenda of New Federalism upon the Bicentennial planning process to help engender a conservative realignment of American values and the electorate. Chapter 3 chronicles the transformation of the Smithsonian Festival of American Folklife from a small celebration of deep-rooted folkways with counterhegemonic aims into a grand multicultural Bicentennial spectacle that advanced the ideological and economic prerogatives of the Smithsonian's liberal leadership, of conservative politicians, and its major corporate sponsors. Chapter 4 explores the launch and exhibition design of the American Freedom Train, which marshaled substantial economic and political resources of the federal government and four American corporations - Pepsico, Prudential, Kraftco, and General Motors. This single most widely-circulated project reasserted a teleological narrative of steady economic, technological, and social progress and affirmed the cultural authority of its corporate stewards and the success of privatization. / 2019-04-30T00:00:00Z

In this thesis, I survey American public commemorations about war, the military, and Black American veterans from the nineteenth century to the present. With historiography about American war commemorations and with primary and secondary sources disclosing America’s racial hierarchy implemented legally and socially throughout this timeframe, this thesis unveils a chronology of discrimination and White supremacy which resulted in the marginalization of Black Americans in public art. Utilizing twentieth century archival records from the “National Home of Disabled and Volunteer Soldiers” as a basis of analysis, I navigate through the history of American war commemorations to unveil how the U.S.’ devotion to denoting race throughout and within its societal structures contributed to a dearth of acknowledgment of Black American servicemen in the public commemorative landscape.I argue that by evaluating the racial climate, devotion to White supremacy, and commemorative politics of American society from the nineteenth century to today, a future, more inclusive monument to Black American veterans may be formed. I also argue that by studying past implementations of public art regarding the military, war, and veterans alongside a timeline of civil rights movements including the contemporary movement “Black Lives Matter,” past monuments and commemorative structures with supremacist representations may be challenged in ways to diversify and improve the American commemorative landscape. I posit that a project to publicly depict Black servicepeople should involve Black narratives, Black leadership, and ample information about the subjects of the structure to combat past measures of erasure of Black American servicepeople in American public art. / History

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