Objects of War

Leora Auslander; Tara Zahra

Description

The book, Objects of War, illuminates the ways in which people have used things to grapple with the social, cultural, and psychological upheavals wrought by war and forced displacement. Utah Public RadioHistorians have become increasingly interested in material culture as both a category of analysis and as a teaching tool. And yet the profession tends to be suspicious of things; words are its stock-in-trade. What new insights can historians gain about the past by thinking about things? A central object (and consequence) of modern warfare is the radical destruction and transformation of the material world. And yet we know little about the role of material culture in the history of war and forced displacement: objects carried in flight; objects stolen on battlefields; objects expropriated, reappropriated, and remembered.Objects of War illuminates the ways in which people have used things to grapple with the social, cultural, and psychological upheavals wrought by war and forced displacement. Chapters consider theft and pillaging as strategies of conquest; soldiers' relationships with their weapons; and the use of clothing and domestic goods by prisoners of war, extermination camp inmates, freed people, and refugees to make claims and to create a kind of normalcy.While studies of migration and material culture have proliferated in recent years, as have histories of the Napoleonic, colonial, World Wars, and postcolonial wars, few have focused on the movement of people and things in times of war across two centuries. This focus, in combination with a broad temporal canvas, serves historians and others well as they seek to push beyond the written word.Contributors:Noah Benninga, Sandra H. Dudley, Bonnie Effros, Cathleen M. Giustino, Alice Goff, Gerdien Jonker, Aubrey Pomerance, Iris Rachamimov, Brandon M. Schechter, Jeffrey Wallen, and Sarah Jones Weicksel

Sujets

• Histoire
• Military history
• Material culture
• Historiography

Informations

• Publié par: Cornell University Press
• Date de parution: 15 mai 2018
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781501720086
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 4 Mo

Extrait

ObjectsofWar

ObjectsofWar

TheMaterialCultureof Conflict and Displacement

EditedbyLeoraAuslander and Tara Zahra

CornellUniversityPress IthacaandLondon

Copyright©2018byCornellUniversity

Allrightsreserved.Exceptforbriefquotationsinareview,thisbook,or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher. For information, address Cornell University Press, Sage House, 512 East State Street, Ithaca, New York 14850.

Firstpublished2018byCornellUniversityPress

PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica

LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData

Names:Auslander,Leora,editor.|Zahra,Tara,editor.|Containerof  (work): Goff, Alice. Honor of the trophy. Title: Objects of war : the material culture of conflict and displacement /  edited by Leora Auslander and Tara Zahra. Description: Ithaca : Cornell University Press, 2018. | Includes  bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2017050432 (print) | LCCN 2017051679 (ebook) |  ISBN 9781501720093 (epub/mobi) | ISBN 9781501720086 (pdf) |  ISBN 9781501720079 | ISBN 9781501720079 (pbk. : alk. paper) Subjects: LCSH: War and society. | Pillage. | Material culture. | Personal belongings. Classification: LCC HM554 (ebook) | LCC HM554 .O25 2018 (print) | DDC303.6/6—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017050432

CornellUniversityPressstrivestouseenvironmentallyresponsible suppliers and materials to the fullest extent possible in the publishing of its books. Such materials include vegetable-based, low-VOC inks and acid-free papers that are recycled, totally chlorine-free, or partly composed of nonwood fibers. For further information, visit our website at cornellpress.cornell.edu.

Cover photograph: Keys to the Sommerfeld family trunks that never reached England. The Jewish Museum Berlin, Gift of George and Peter Summerfield.

Toallwhohavefoundtheirlivesuprootedbyviolence.

Lad with mother pushing from behind rolls cartload of possessions out of Uerdingen, Germany, moved out by allied military government seeking to prevent loss of life from shelling by Germans on other side of Rhine. Photograph dated March 19, 1945, U.S. National Archives, no. 531255.

ListofIllustrationsix

Acknowledgmentsxi

Contents

Introduction.TheThingsTheyCarried:War,Mobility, and Material Culture LeoraAuslanderandTaraZahra

Part I. States of Things: The Making of Modern NationStates and Empires

 1. The Honor of the Trophy: A Prussian Bronze in the Napoleonic Era AliceGoff

 2. Colliding Empires: French Display of Roman Antiquities Expropriated from Postconquest Algeria, 1830–1870 BonnieEffros

3.Pretty Things, Ugly Histories: Decorating with Persecuted People’s Property in Central Bohemia, 1938–1958 CathleenM.Giustino

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Part II. People and Things: Individual Use of Things in Wartime

 4. Peeled Bodies, Pillaged Homes: Looting and Material Culture in the American Civil War Era SarahJonesWeicksel

 5. Embodied Violence: A Red Army Soldier’s Journey as Told by Objects BrandonSchechter

 6. Small Escapes: Gender, Class, and Material Culture in Great War Internment Camps IrisRachamimov

 7. The Bricolage of Death: Jewish Possessions and the Fashioning of the Prisoner Elite in Auschwitz-Birkenau, 1942–1945 NoahBenninga

Part III. Afterlives: From Things to Memories

 8. Lisa’s Things: Matching German-Jewish and Indian- Muslim Traditions 223 GerdienJonker

 9. Circuitous Journeys: The Migration of Objects and the Trusteeship of Memory Jeffrey Wallen and Aubrey Pomerance

10.PakuKarenSkirt-Cloths(Not)atHome:Forcibly Migrated Burmese Textiles in Refugee Camps and Museums SandraH.Dudley

Epilogue309 LeoraAuslanderandTaraZahra

NotesonContributors319

Index325

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Illustrations

 I.1 Inkwell and pens crafted from shell casings and other battlefield material by Gustave Herman  I.2 Photograph of the portraits of the tsars of Russia torn from the walls during the Russian Revolution  1.1 Bronze statue of a young man (Adorans)28  2.1 Perceval Barton Lord, Algiers52  2.2 Statue of Hercules, Musée de Cherchel58  2.3 Damaged head of Agrippa63  3.1 The Great Hall before the Second World War83  3.2 The Salon in 195498  3.3 The bedroom with hunting scenes in 195499  4.1 Tintype of Confederate soldier Charles C. Wheat, c. 1861112  4.2 Silver-platedteapot 131  4.3 Pencil sketch by Arthur Lumley133  5.1 Guards Senior Sergeant B. M. Damcheev140  6.1 First World War civilian internees at Knockaloe Camp, Isle of Man167

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