Traumatic defeat : POWs, MIAs, and national mythmaking /
Traumatic Defeat is a comparative study of wartime and postwar Prisoner of War (POW) and Missing in Action (MIA) activism and politics in Germany after World War II and the United States after the Vietnam War. Patrick Gallagher argues that under certain circumstances, a postwar form of national myth...
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| Format: | Book |
| Language: | English |
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Lawrence :
University Press of Kansas,
[2018]
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| Summary: | Traumatic Defeat is a comparative study of wartime and postwar Prisoner of War (POW) and Missing in Action (MIA) activism and politics in Germany after World War II and the United States after the Vietnam War. Patrick Gallagher argues that under certain circumstances, a postwar form of national mythology develops, derived from POW/MIA activism and the belief that substantial numbers of MIAs continue to survive in secret captivity after war's end. He refers to this phenomenon as the "secret camp myth," after the covert facilities in which these missing men supposedly survive. Gallagher demonstrates that these two parallel cases of national trauma over prisoners and the missing demonstrate how wars can breed mythologies that, if not satisfied, can take on lives of their own and come to dominate national conversations on the history of warfare, aftermath, and defeat. |
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| Physical Description: | viii, 200 pages ; 24 cm. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| ISBN: | 9780700626441 0700626441 |