Defeat and Memory: Cultural Histories of Military Defeat in the Modern Era

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 of definitive, has and will always incorporate and 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 utilise a rich range of sources including school text books, 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.

Table of Contents:
Introduction; J.Macleod Defeat and Memory in Modern History; J.Horne Defeat and Foreign Rule as a Narrative of National Rebirth -- The German Memory of the Napoleonic Period in the 19th and Early 20th century; C.Koller From Heroic Defeat to Mutilated Victory: the Myth of Caporetto in Fascist Italy; V.Wilcox Taboos of Defeat: Unmentionable Memories of the Franco-Prussian War in France, 1870-1914; K.Varley Religious War, German War, Total War: The Shadow of the Thirty Years' War on German War Making in the Twentieth Century; K.Cramer The Stories of Defeated Aggressors: International History, National Identity and Collective Memory after 1945; P.Finney Defeat, Due Process, and Denial: War Crimes Trials and Nationalist Revisionism in Comparative Perspective; D.Bloxham Memory of War and War Crimes: Japanese Historical Consciousness and the Tokyo Trial; M.Futamura War Veterans and Kamikaze Memorialization: A Case Study of Defeat Remembrance as Revitalization Movement; M.G.Sheftall Confederate Defeat and Cultural Expressions of Memory, 1877-1940; K.L.Cox Gallipoli to Golgotha: Remembering the Internment of the Russian White Army at Gallipoli, 1920-3; A.Shmelev The Memory of French Military Defeat at Dien Bien Phu and the Defence of French Algeria; S.Tyre The Enduring Paradigm of the 'Lost Cause': Defeat in Vietnam, the Stab-in-the Back Legend, and the Construction of a Myth; J.Kimball

About the Author :
JENNY MACLEOD is Lecturer in Twentieth Century History at the University of Hull. She has published two books on the cultural history of the Gallipoli campaign, Reconsidering Gallipoli and and edited volume, Gallipoli: Making History. She is the co-founder and treasurer of the International Society for First World War Studies.