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Reconciling Memory: Landscapes, Commemorations, And Enduring Conflicts Of The U.S.-Dakota War Of 1862, Julie A. Anderson
Reconciling Memory: Landscapes, Commemorations, And Enduring Conflicts Of The U.S.-Dakota War Of 1862, Julie A. Anderson
History Dissertations
The U.S.-Dakota War of 1862 resulted in the deaths of more than 500 Minnesota settlers, the expulsion of the Dakota people from their homeland, and the largest mass execution in U.S. history. For more than a century, white Minnesotans declared themselves innocent victims of Indian brutality and actively remembered this war by erecting monuments, preserving historic landscapes, publishing first-person narratives, and hosting anniversary celebrations. However, as the centennial anniversary approached, new awareness for the sufferings of the Dakota both before and after the war prompted retellings of the traditional story that gave the status of victimhood to the Dakota as …
Nationalizing The Dead: The Contested Making Of An American Commemorative Tradition From The Civil War To The Great War, Shannon T. Bontrager Ph.D.
Nationalizing The Dead: The Contested Making Of An American Commemorative Tradition From The Civil War To The Great War, Shannon T. Bontrager Ph.D.
History Dissertations
In recent years, scholars have emphasized the importance of collective memory in the making of national identity. Where does death fit into the collective memory of American identity, particularly in the economic and social chaos of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries? How did death shape the collective memory of American national identity in the midst of a pluralism brought on by immigration, civil and labor rights, and a transforming culture? On the one hand, the commemorations of public figures such as Ulysses S. Grant, William McKinley, and Theodore Roosevelt constructed an identity based on Anglo-Saxonism, American imperialism, and …
Germans As Victims? The Discourse On The Vertriebene Diaspora, 1945-2005, Kevin Marc Larson
Germans As Victims? The Discourse On The Vertriebene Diaspora, 1945-2005, Kevin Marc Larson
History Theses
This thesis examines German memories of the Vertriebene, the twelve million Germans who fled their homeland in the face of Russian invasion in the closing days of World War II. I explore the acceptable limits of victim discourse and consider the validity of arguments about German victimization in light of the atrocities committed by Germans during the war. Three chapters discuss diaspora, discourse and commemoration. I relate diaspora historiography to the Vertriebene and then dissect the discourse of the Bund der Vertriebenen and its construction of a German "victim mythos" that undermined more acceptable claims for the recognition of Germans …