The Good War in American Memory - Paperback

by John Bodnar (Author)

The "Good War" in American Memory dispels the long-held myth that Americans forged an agreement on why they had to fight in World War II. John Bodnar's sociocultural examination of the vast public debate that took place in the United States over the war's meaning reveals that the idea of the "good war" was highly contested.

Bodnar's comprehensive study of the disagreements that marked the American remembrance of World War II in the six decades following its end draws on an array of sources: fiction and nonfiction, movies, theater, and public monuments. He identifies alternative strands of memory--tragic and brutal versus heroic and virtuous--and reconstructs controversies involving veterans, minorities, and memorials. In building this narrative, Bodnar shows how the idealism of President Franklin Roosevelt's Four Freedoms was lost in the public commemoration of World War II, how the war's memory became intertwined in the larger discussion over American national identity, and how it only came to be known as the "good war" many years after its conclusion.

Front Jacket

The "Good War" in American Memory dispels the long-held myth that Americans forged an agreement on why they had to fight in World War II. John Bodnar's sociocultural examination of the vast public debate that took place in the United States over the war's meaning reveals that the idea of the good war was highly contested.

This engaging and well-written book addresses not just World War II but . . . war remembrance more generally.--Cercles

Bodnar provides a corrective lens for those whose recent myopia accepts the celebratory effect of . . . traditional treatments of American participation in World War II . . . What Bodnar has adamantly recovered is the faded suffering of family members whose loved ones were buried overseas or never found, and the memories of veterans who could not escape the confusion and frustration.--Journal of American History

Show[s] movingly and with great care how the history of emotion is embedded in the history of war and point[s] the way to future scholarship with authority and conviction. That is no mean achievement.--American Historical Review

Back Jacket

Praise for John Bodnar's Blue-Collar Hollywood

"An uncommonly well balanced account of the political biases of American movies . . . A fine read for the generalist yet a scholarly achievement."--Choice

"You cannot but be seduced and even sometimes bedazzled by Bodnar's clear, well-informed and impartial analysis."--Cercles

"Bodnar provides a useful provocation. He asks us to think imaginatively about the subtle and complex ways movies communicate ideas and attitudes."--Journal of American History

"Open minded and even handed, he appreciates the nuances and mixed messages of Hollywood cinema."--American Historical Review

Author Biography

John Bodnar is the Chancellor's Professor of History and the director of the Institute for Advanced Study at Indiana University. He has authored or edited nine other books, including Blue-Collar Hollywood: Liberalism, Democracy, and Working People in American Film, also published by Johns Hopkins.