Using a rich body of primary sources including autobiographies, diaries, and letters, this survey reveals how upper middle-class men in early 20th-century Britain were socialized into class and gender roles in ways that fostered powerful affiliations with social institutions and ideologies. A closer look at case studies of key figures such as Robert Graves, Siegfried Sassoon, and W. H. R. Rivers, as well as lesser-known individuals such as the Liverpool businessman, Gypsiologist and volunteer soldier Scott Macfie, and the Communist literary critic Alick West, helps to answer the following questions: "How do individuals come to form political affiliations?" and "What are the origins of the bonds of attachment and loyalty which develop between individuals, political parties, social movements, and the nation state?" Drawing on theories of nationalism, masculinity, and psychoanalysis, this study investigates the profound impact of the World War I, which for some offered an escape from or reconciliation of existing conflicts with family and nation, but for others subverted their existing loyalties, leading them to challenge the values within which they had been educated.

Using a rich body of primary sources including autobiographies, diaries, and letters, this survey reveals how upper middle-class men in early 20th-century Britain were socialized into class and gender roles in ways that fostered powerful affiliations with social institutions and ideologies. A closer look at case studies of key figures such as Robert Graves, Siegfried Sassoon, and W. H. R. Rivers, as well as lesser-known individuals such as the Liverpool businessman, Gypsiologist and volunteer soldier Scott Macfie, and the Communist literary critic Alick West, helps to answer the following questions: "How do individuals come to form political affiliations?" and "What are the origins of the bonds of attachment and loyalty that develop between individuals, political parties, social movements, and the nation state?" Drawing on theories of nationalism, masculinity, and psychoanalysis, this study investigates the profound impact of World War I, which for some offered an escape from or reconciliation of existing conflicts with family and nation, but for others subverted their existing loyalties, leading them to challenge the values within which they had been educated.

Mental and material reconstruction was an ongoing process after World War II, and it still is. This volume combines a detailed treatment of post-war cultural reconstruction in Finnish Lapland - a region on the geographical and historical margins of its nation-state - with comparative case studies of silent post-war memory from other European countries The contributors shed light on key aspects of cultural reconstruction generally: disruptions of national narratives, difficulties of post-war cultural demobilisation, sites of memory, visual narratives of post-war reconstruction, and manifestations of trans-generational experiences of cultural reconstruction. Exploration of the less conspicuous aspects of mental reconstruction reveals various forms of post-war silence and silencing which have halted or hindered different groups of people in their mental return to peace. Rather than focusing on the "executive level" of material reconstruction, the volume turns its gaze towards those who experienced the return to peace in the mental, societal, and historical margins: members of ethnic, religious, and cultural minorities, women, and children. The chapters draw on archival and other original sources, personal memories, autobiographical interpretations, and academic debate. The volume is relevant for scholars and advanced students in the fields of cultural history, art history, and cultural studies.

War memory and commemoration have had increasingly high profiles in public and academic debates in recent years. This volume examines some of the social changes which have led to this development, among them the passing of the two World Wars from survivor into cultural memory. Focusing on the politics of war memory and commemoration, the book illuminates the struggle to install particular memories at the centre of a cultural world, and offers an extensive argument about how the politics of commemoration practices should be understood.

Mental and material reconstruction was an ongoing process after World War II, and it still is. This volume combines a detailed treatment of post-war cultural reconstruction in Finnish Lapland - a region on the geographical and historical margins of its nation-state - with comparative case studies of silent post-war memory from other European countries The contributors shed light on key aspects of cultural reconstruction generally: disruptions of national narratives, difficulties of post-war cultural demobilisation, sites of memory, visual narratives of post-war reconstruction, and manifestations of trans-generational experiences of cultural reconstruction. Exploration of the less conspicuous aspects of mental reconstruction reveals various forms of post-war silence and silencing which have halted or hindered different groups of people in their mental return to peace. Rather than focusing on the "executive level" of material reconstruction, the volume turns its gaze towards those who experienced the return to peace in the mental, societal, and historical margins: members of ethnic, religious, and cultural minorities, women, and children. The chapters draw on archival and other original sources, personal memories, autobiographical interpretations, and academic debate. The volume is relevant for scholars and advanced students in the fields of cultural history, art history, and cultural studies.

Contents:
Part I. Framing the Issues
1. The politics of war memory and commemoration: contexts, structures and dynamics T.G. Ashplant, Graham Dawson and Michael Roper
Part II. Case Studies
2. Layers of memory: twenty years after in Argentina Elizabeth Jelin and Susana G. Kaufman
3. The South African War/Anglo-Boer War 1899-1902 and political memory in South Africa Bill Nasson
4. National narratives, war commemoration, and racial exclusion in a settler society: the Australian case Ann Curthoys
5. 'This is where they fought': Finnish war landscapes as a national heritage Petri J. Raivo
6. Remembered/Replayed: the nation and male subjectivity in the Second World War films, Ni Liv (Norway) and The Cruel Sea (Britain) Peter Sjølyst-Jackson
7. Postmemory cinema: second-generation Israelis screen the Holocaust in Don't Touch My Holocaust Yosefa Loshitzky
8. Hauntings: memory, fiction, and the Portuguese Colonial Wars Paulo de Medeiros
9. Longing for war: nostalgia and Australian returned soldiers after the First World War Stephen Garton
10. Involuntary commemorations: post-traumatic stress disorder and its relationship to war commemoration Jo Stanley
Part III. Debates and Reviews
11. War commemoration in Western Europe: changing meanings, divisive loyalties, unheard voices T.G. Ashplant