Wars do not fully end when the shooting stops. As G. Kurt
Piehler reveals in this book, after every conflict from the
Revolution to the Persian Gulf War, Americans have argued about how
and for what deeds and heroes wars should be remembered.
Drawing on sources ranging from government documents to
Embalmer''s Monthly, Piehler recounts efforts to commemorate wars by
erecting monuments, designating holidays, forming veterans''
organizations, and establishing national cemetaries. The federal
government, he contends, initially sidestepped funding for
memorials, thereby leaving the determination of how and whom to
honor in the hands of those with ready money—and those who
responded to them. In one instance, monuments to “Yankee heroes”
erected by the Daughters of the American Revolution were countered
by immigrant groups, who added such figures as Casimir Pulaski and
Thaddeus Kosciusko to the record of the war. Piehler argues that
the conflict between these groups is emblematic of the ongoing
reinterpretation of wars by majority and minority groups, and by
successive generations.
Demonstrating that the battles over the Vietnam Veterans Memorial
are not unique in American history, Remembering War the American
Way reveals that the memory of war is intrinsically bound to the
pluralistic definition of national identity.