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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... values-neutral military engagements rather than probing the tough and potentially divisive questions of what the war was about and what it did to Americans of different regions, classes, genders, and races. It can be charged that we ...
... values. As chapter 4 suggests, by the latter part of the nineteenth century, the figure of the soldier in battle was freighted with symbolic meaning, often as a model of character. But chapter 5 argues that, as cultural needs changed in ...
... people to articulate ideas and values of importance to them. Thus, although Custer may not have been the greatest Indian fighter, he quickly became a cultural icon because of other factors. Andrew Jackson, who was an important.
... values and goals. The Charge of the Light Brigade was seen in the 1850s as a sublime triumph of selfsacrifice coming up from the ranks, while in the very different political climate of the 1960s it appeared as the epitome of blind ...
... values, we will not all have an identical interest in the same historical events any more than we subscribe to the same points of view about the past. Although we can speak of a single popular culture, it also has many subgroups ...
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 |