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“A Foothold in Europe”: The Aesthetics and Politics of American War Cemeteries in Western Europe

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 January 2009

Ron Robin
Ron Robin
Affiliation:
Ron Robin is Senior Lecturer in History, Department of General History, University of Haifa, Haifa 31905, Israel.
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Extract

Twenty American military cemeteries dot the pastoral countryside of western Europe. Casualties of the Great War, numbering 31,000, are buried in eight sites: 73,000 of America's 93,000 overseas burials from the Second World War are interred in twelve European cemeteries. These “silent cities” are monuments to an enduring result of global conflict: a forceful American presence in the cultural and political landscapes of other countries. The cemeteries' standardized styles, laconic epitaphs, and their removal from the sphere of family and community erase much of the sense of individual tragedy associated with premature death. Indeed, the American burial grounds were not meant to be mere memorials; they were designed primarily as representations of the American spirit abroad and as a political “foothold in Europe,” according to one of their prominent exponents. They were planned to evoke a common national cause rather than mourn the death of young soldiers. Their foreign context, the New York Times stated, meant that they would “stand forever as symbols of America, our spirit and our aesthetic.”

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of American Studies , Volume 29 , Issue 1 , April 1995 , pp. 55 - 72
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995

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References

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