Grafting Memory

THIS COLLECTION OF ESSAYS examines how the American Civil War and the Great War of 1914-1918 together launched new practices for honoring the dead as individuals. Some of these practices included the uniformity of burial of both officers and the field soldier; the actual naming of the dead; the erection of memorials to the missing and unknown; and individual recognition in photos, statuary and living memorials. Also discussed is how countless streams of private grief has joined the...
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THIS COLLECTION OF ESSAYS examines how the American Civil War and the Great War of 1914-1918 together launched new practices for honoring the dead as individuals. Some of these practices included the uniformity of burial of both officers and the field soldier; the actual naming of the dead; the erection of memorials to the missing and unknown; and individual recognition in photos, statuary and living memorials. Also discussed is how countless streams of private grief has joined the mainstream of public mourning, how monuments have been used for "nation building," and how the memorial landscape has changed from the nearly ubiquitous standing Civil War monuments to the World War One doughboys, to almost nothing.