The "Good War" in American Memory

by John Bodnar

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 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.

Genres: History, American History, World War II

320 pages, Paperback

First published August 17, 2010

Reviews

[Shane Gower · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book because of a personal interest I have in memorials and the ways in which we remember war and sacrifice. My interest in this topic was first stoked by a visit to the Rhone American Cemetery in 2013. I embarrassed to admit I didn't even know that there were Americans buried in Europe and maintained by the US Government until 2011! Since then, I have learned so much about these memorials and others. I really became fascinated with the way we choose to memorialize the war after visiting the large and interesting National D-Day memorial in Bedford, VA in 2014. This book feeds right into this interest by offering analysis of the memorials and what they are attempting to memorialize. I really like how Bodnar included an analysis of books, movies, and more. I found some sections not as interesting as others have written on similar topics in a more interesting manner, but his chapters on film, books, and monuments I found to be fascinating! The strength here is an attempt to understand what influenced the way we have remembered the war. This is an interesting read for someone with similar interests.

[George Siehl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bodnar's "Remaking America" was excellent, clearly defining the competing versions of memory: official and vernacular. I eagerly approached his treatment of WWII anticipating the application of this line of analysis. Disappointingly, that clarity is not evident in this book. He provides a fine review the many influences on memory of the past including the historical record (understanding that memory is not history, and vice versa), to memoir, the novel, film, the sense of WWII held by participants and their families and loved ones, and community roles, remembrances, and commemorations.

He rues the loss of FDR's "Four Freedoms" from much of the mass of materials treating with the war. But, did this declaration constitute the "official memory" we are to hold? To privilege the idealistic rhetoric over the costly (in blood and treasure) reality of our response to the Japanese attack and the German declaration of war upon the United States seems a distortion of memory.
Nonetheless the book does remind us that values are an important constituent in the formulation of public memory.

[Liz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting look at the way views of the Second World War has changed over time. Some very interesting points and arguments.