Echoes of War: A Thousand Years of Military History in Popular CultureUniversity Press of Kentucky, 2021 M10 21 - 296 pages Americans are often accused of not appreciating history, but this charge belies the real popular interest in the past. Historical reenactments draw thousands of spectators; popular histories fill the bestseller lists; PBS, A&E and The History Channel air a dizzying array of documentaries and historical dramas; and Hollywood war movies become blockbusters. Though historians worry that these popular representations sacrifice authenticity for broad appeal, Michael C.C. Adams argues that living history—even if it is an incomplete depiction of the past—plays a vital role in stimulating the historical imagination. In Echoes of War, he examines how one of the most popular fields of history is portrayed, embraced, and shaped by mainstream culture. Adams argues that symbols of war are of intrinsic military significance and help people to articulate ideas and values. We still return to the knight as a symbol of noble striving; the bowman appeals as a rebel against unjust privilege. Though Custer may not have been the Army's most accomplished fighter, he achieved the status of cultural icon. The public memory of the redcoated British regular soldier shaped American attitudes toward governments and gun laws. The 1863 attack on Fort Wagner by the black Fifty-fourth Massachusetts regiment was lost to public view until racial equality became important in the late twentieth century. Echoes of War is a unique look at how a thousand years of military history are remembered in popular culture, through images ranging from the medieval knight to the horror of U.S. involvement in the My Lai massacre. |
From inside the book
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... Cavalry in the West and Theodore Roosevelt's Rough Riders in Cuba were first seen as symbols of the “white man's burden” to carry civilization to the world on the point of a saber. After the end of imperialism in the twentieth century ...
... cavalry of King Edward I of England was unseated by ordinary Scots footmen with long spears in the battles described. The manifestations of popular fascination with knighthood go on. Football players are “knights of the gridiron ...
... Cavalry were considered the vital arm in Normandy. Because he commanded a more disciplined, flexible force of foot and horse, William had more options available to him, and he took the offensive. Harold, with an uneven foot force, had ...
... cavalry. But it left no major role for women; a mann was now a man-at-arms. Women also lost status in the church, seen by Normans as the spiritual battalion of God's army on Earth and therefore inherently masculine; women were enjoined ...
... cavalry tactic coming into use at Hastings gave much more power to the horseman: instead of carrying the lance overhead to jab down with it, he couched it under his right arm, gripped against his side, pointing at the enemy, and then ...
Other editions - View all
Echoes of War: A Thousand Years of Military History in Popular Culture Michael C.C. Adams Limited preview - 2014 |
Echoes of War: A Thousand Years of Military History in Popular Culture Michael C. C. Adams No preview available - 2002 |
Echoes of War: A Thousand Years of Military History in Popular Culture Michael C.C. Adams No preview available - 2002 |