Remembering War: The Great War Between Memory and History in the 20th Century

by Jay Murray Winter

This is a masterful volume on remembrance and war in the twentieth century. Jay Winter locates the fascination with the subject of memory within a long-term trajectory that focuses on the Great War. Images, languages, and practices that appeared during and after the two world wars focused on the need to acknowledge the victims of war and shaped the ways in which future conflicts were imagined and remembered. At the core of the “memory boom” is an array of collective meditations on war and the victims of war, Winter says.

The book begins by tracing the origins of contemporary interest in memory, then describes practices of remembrance that have linked history and memory, particularly in the first half of the twentieth century. The author also considers “theaters of memory”—film, television, museums, and war crimes trials in which the past is seen through public representations of memories. The book concludes with reflections on the significance of these practices for the cultural history of the twentieth century as a whole.

Genres: History, World War I, Nonfiction, Grad School

340 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 2006

Reviews

[Paul Cornelius · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jay Winter turned from a professional concentration in social history to an interest in cultural history late in his career. This book, Remembering War, essentially sums up his findings regarding the role of memory in the practices of historical remembrance. He locates the origins of the "memory boom" of the twentieth century and beyond in the responses, public and private, to the destruction and deaths generated by the Great War. He believes it was in many ways the template for historical remembrance associated with Holocaust, and, although he gives it relatively scant attention, for the Vietnam War as well.

Winter's minor problem is his prose, which can be turgid and fitful. What is more troublesome is his insistence on according specialized definitions to commonplace words that in many ways distort their definitions and as a result actually disrupt communication with the reader. That doesn't mean his terminology is without its uses. It has value--perhaps even a great deal of value--in giving us something to fetch hold on with slippery ideas such as "memory," "collective memory," "national memory," "fictive kinship," "remembrance," "historial," and "moral witness."

Otherwise, his greatest contribution, I think, is to note the mutating nature of memory and remembrance. Not only among the witnesses themselves but subsequent generations. All of which goes to make monuments, literature, films, and museums ever changing in regards to the reception of meaning of their contents.

[Zoheb Mashiur · Rating 2 out of 5]

Difficult, circuitous prose prone to going off into tangents. Chapters suffer from an unusual combination of hyper-focusing on individual stories while eliding over rigorous analysis of broader questions and controversies of memory. It has its moments for sure, particularly in the chapter on War Letters, but overall Prof. Winter's book is more effort than it is worth.

[Brumaire Bodbyl-Mast · Rating 3 out of 5]

Assigned for class, Winter’s work is a more historiographical work, if even that. It focuses on the interactions between “memory-“ something which came increasingly center-stage following the traumatic 20th century. Memory does not really take on a collective, state-sponsored form according to winter, and in cases of ‘collective memory,’ there is much cacophony. I found his conception of the ‘first memory boom,’ the state-sponsored project of remembrance gone horribly wrong in the First World War, quite interesting, though very little of the book focuses on it. Much more of it is dedicated to often contradictory attempts to focus on public history and memory. He especially seems to contradict himself regarding films, where his discussion of historical films is a convoluted one, but of documentaries is perfectly clear (this is probably a residual bias due to his work on the latter, but not the former.) The concept of moral witness is also an interesting one- but restrained to a chapter. Overall, he provides a lot of interesting analysis, but often can be hard to follow and bogged down in academic arguments, despite the supposedly iconoclastic nature of the work.

[Jack · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good exploration of remembrance, representation, and their role in looking at war.

[Alyssa · Rating 3 out of 5]

In all honesty I was disappointed in this book. I was excited to read it because I am fascinated by how different interpretations of memory reflect upon different subjects. My main issue was that it was just so dry and there were tangents taken that I had no idea how they were going to tie back to the main concepts. It was not what I was expecting at all. It also required the reader to have a background in WWI history, which I do not really have at all so it was confusing at points about what he was discussing. I do have to also say that I read this for a class I am taking.

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jay Winter is a proponent of the new school of thought that museums should be interactive learning environments rather than cold housing areas for impersonal artifacts. This book is a great exploration of the different types of remembrance and memory, with emphasis on WWI.

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Winter is a great writer and made the subject of war and war memory much more interesting than I thought it would be.

[Dray · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dang, this book was difficult. Good information, but pure torture.

[Nicholas · Rating 3 out of 5]

A rehashing of his other writings...

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

Only got one-third of it read and had to return to library. Didn't like it much anyway.