On the Battlefield of Memory: The First World War and American Remembrance, 1919–1941

Prologue: "Guide-Book Ike"

illustrations 1. “never Again! But Wasn’t it Great, eh!” 11 2. “Objective Obtained” 59 3. The final page of Memoirs of a Vet 66 4. The front cover of Memoirs of a Vet 67 5. The front cover of the American Legion Monthly (April 1927) 76 6. The first page of “A Pass to Paris” 81 7. One of Wallace Morgan’s illustrations for “eggs” 83 8. Cyrus leroy Baldridge’s illustration for “Be it ever So humble” 95 9. Spirit of the American Doughboy 111 10. Advertisement for a Spirit of the American Doughboy statuette 118 11. The Machine Gunner 161 12. The Engineer 162 13. In the Front Line at Early Morning 163 14. Prisoners and Wounded 167 15. The front cover of the American Legion Monthly (April 1937) 171 16. The front cover of the American Legion Monthly (August 1938) 176 17. Outpost Raid: Champagne Sector 187 18. The End of War: Starting Home 189 19. Mr. Prejudice 195 20. The Return of Private Davis from the Argonne 200 21. Parade to War, Allegory 216 22. September 13, 1918, Saint Mihiel 220 23. Quentin Roosevelt’s grave near Chamery as it appeared in 1927 225 24. Down the Net—Tarawa 246 Acknowledgments This study of collective memory is, like all monographs, ultimately a collective effort. The book’s errors and defects are of my own making; its merits reflect the cooperation and assistance of many different people. Among these individuals, two were of particular importance—namely, the pair of anonymous readers who evaluated this manuscript for The University of Alabama Press. Both of these scholars understood where i was going and helped me get there. For the wise advice contained in their detailed reports, i am deeply grateful. And i must thank the staff at The University of Alabama Press for selecting these readers and for offering such expert guidance at every step of the publication process. My home institution, Fort hays State University, supported this project in every way, starting with a sabbatical leave in 2007. Without this block of time, i would never have been able to complete such a dense, interdisciplinary project. For this reason, i am deeply indebted to Provost lawrence Gould, who has supported my scholarly work for more than fifteen years now, and to the members of the FhSU Sabbatical Committee. Other individuals at my institution helped as well. Paul Faber, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, granted me a course reduction for one semester so that i could bring this study closer to completion; Cheryl Duffy, my department chair in 2007, and Carl Singleton, my current chair, made helpful adjustments to my teaching schedule; and Sheran Powers, head of the interlibrary loan Department at Forsyth library, tracked down each and every one of the literally hundreds of obscure World War i titles that i ordered during my leave. Sheran also convinced the Archives of American Art at the Smithsonian institution to send me a major portion of the xii / Acknowledgments John Steuart Curry Papers on microfilm. Ray nolan, a gifted graduate student (now finishing his PhD in history at Kansas State), served for a semester as my research assistant, scouring period newspapers and periodicals for articles related to war commemoration. Many of the primary sources consulted in this study were his discoveries. ever helpful, Mitchell Weber of the FhSU Center for Teaching excellence and learning Technology created the digital images for most of the illustrations in this book. An interdisciplinary course on war and memory, which i team-taught with my friend and colleague Steven Kite during the spring 2009 semester , sparked a number of ideas that helped shape the final version of this monograph. For some of the most exciting classroom discussions of my career, i am grateful to Steve, a fine historian, and to the students in that class, especially Jodanna Bitner, Morgan Chalfant, ian Conkey, Chis Dinkel , Brian Gribbin, and Theresa Kraisinger. These excellent graduate students taught me a great deal and, in the process, changed what i thought i knew about American remembrance and World War i. Research for this book carried me to many different archives, where, without exception, i encountered generous and considerate individuals. Jonathan Casey provided invaluable assistance as i worked in the archives of the national World War i Museum. Kris McCusker of the Special Collections Department at the University of Colorado not only made the Thomas...