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Remembering World War Ii in the Late 1990S

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Remembering World War Ii in the Late 1990S REMEMBERING WORLD WAR II IN THE LATE 1990S: A CASE OF PROSTHETIC MEMORY By JONATHAN MONROE BULLINGER A dissertation submitted to the Graduate School-New Brunswick Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey In partial fulfillment of the requirements For the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Program in Communication, Information, and Library Studies Written under the direction of Dr. Susan Keith and approved by Dr. Melissa Aronczyk ________________________________________ Dr. Jack Bratich _____________________________________________ Dr. Susan Keith ______________________________________________ Dr. Yael Zerubavel ___________________________________________ New Brunswick, New Jersey January 2017 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Remembering World War II in the Late 1990s: A Case of Prosthetic Memory JONATHAN MONROE BULLINGER Dissertation Director: Dr. Susan Keith This dissertation analyzes the late 1990s US remembrance of World War II utilizing Alison Landsberg’s (2004) concept of prosthetic memory. Building upon previous scholarship regarding World War II and memory (Beidler, 1998; Wood, 2006; Bodnar, 2010; Ramsay, 2015), this dissertation analyzes key works including Saving Private Ryan (1998), The Greatest Generation (1998), The Thin Red Line (1998), Medal of Honor (1999), Band of Brothers (2001), Call of Duty (2003), and The Pacific (2010) in order to better understand the version of World War II promulgated by Stephen E. Ambrose, Tom Brokaw, Steven Spielberg, and Tom Hanks. Arguing that this time period and its World War II representations are more than merely a continuation of wartime propaganda, this research investigates these works as an attempt to transfer “privately felt public memories” as originally championed by President Ronald Reagan during the 40th anniversary of D-Day. This dissertation provides a context for this late 1990s engagement with memory by reviewing collective memory theory, drawing upon historian Jay Winter’s observation of “memory booms,” and the role remembrance of previous wars, including World War I, played in how we came to remember World War II. Conservative administrations in the United Kingdom and United States during the 1980s returned a focus to ideas of tradition and heritage moored ii within a utopian understanding of the World War II era. Borrowing traumatic emphasis from Holocaust survivor and Vietnam post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) narratives of the 1970s, politicians such as Ronald Reagan and broadcasters such as Tom Brokaw began constructing prosthetic memories around the US combat soldier experience. Brokaw, acting as megaphone for historian Ambrose’s hyper-focus on World War II soldier oral histories, allowed the former’s honorific “The Greatest Generation” to enter the cultural lexicon. Carrying the Generation’s memory inside of you became a guilt-based duty. The construction of transferential spaces for prosthetic memories during the 1990s was also abated by the rise in computer-based processing, graphics, and sound to immerse an audience or player in a sensory overload simulation. The consequence of this construction of memory is a narrowing of perspective on the lessons of a worldwide war built upon systematic genocide and atomic weapons. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would just like to thank first and foremost two people without whom this completed dissertation would not have been possible: my dissertation advisor Dr. Susan Keith who tirelessly worked to answer questions and strengthen my work and my wife Shaina Allyn Holmes who fearlessly supported me on this long and difficult journey. I would also like to thank Dr. Paul Kantor and the affiliated faculty of CCICADA for providing needed monetary funding throughout most of my doctoral studies. In addition, my dissertation committee has been invaluable to my growth as a scholar: Dr. Jack Bratich who gave entirely too much of his time both in and out of class to teach me, Dr. Yael Zerubavel who gave me a new focus in the form of collective memory, and Dr. Melissa Aronczyk for always questioning my ideas and providing the type of rigor every graduate student needs. Last, but certainly not least, I thank all my friends, colleagues, and fellow students in the doctoral program who always provided social, emotional, and intellectual support during my time at Rutgers. Of those dozens of people, I’d like to particularly thank my friend and co-author Andrew J. Salvati, my DSA brother Dr. Aaron Trammell, my Princeton pal Dr. Katie McCollough, Steve Voorhees, and for their tireless work at community-building, Frank Bridges and Steph Mikitish. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION ....................................................................................... ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................................................ v LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................................ vii Chapter 1 – Remembering World War II: A Brief Introduction ................................................ 1 I. Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 1 II. Remembrance of Other Wars ............................................................................................. 6 III. 1980s and Early 1990s Moments .................................................................................... 11 IV. Unique Contribution to Memory During the late 1990s (1998) ..................................... 15 V. Structure of the Dissertation ............................................................................................ 21 VI. The Road Map ................................................................................................................ 29 Chapter 2 – Literature review ................................................................................................... 32 I. Introduction to Collective Memory and Prosthetic Memory ............................................ 32 II. Memory as Narrative ........................................................................................................ 40 III. Transference of Memory between Generations .............................................................. 43 IV. Myths of War .................................................................................................................. 45 V. US Memory of World War I ............................................................................................ 49 VI. US Propaganda during World War I and World War II ................................................. 58 VII. US Memory of World War II ........................................................................................ 73 VIII. Images of Brutality toward the End of World War II .................................................. 78 IX. The Nuremberg Trials .................................................................................................... 80 X. Holocaust Remembrance during the 1950s ..................................................................... 83 XI. Echoes of the Holocaust during the 1960s ..................................................................... 85 XII. Holocaust Narratives of the 1970s ................................................................................ 86 Chapter 3 – Research Questions and Method ........................................................................... 95 I. Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 95 II. Research Questions .......................................................................................................... 96 III. Research Method ............................................................................................................ 97 IV. Secondary Method ........................................................................................................ 102 Providing Context for World War II Popularity ................................................................. 102 V. Sites of Discursive Analysis .......................................................................................... 109 Chapter 4: Rise of Conservatism and Reagan in 1984 ........................................................... 112 I. Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 112 II. Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan .......................................................................... 114 III. 1984 News Media Commemorative Coverage ............................................................. 126 IV. Early 1990s Commemoration ....................................................................................... 135 Chapter 5: Late 1990s Commemoration ................................................................................. 165 I. Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 165 II. Saving Private Ryan ....................................................................................................... 170 III. The Greatest Generation .............................................................................................. 188 IV. The Thin Red Line .......................................................................................................
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