Raising the dead: war,memory and American national identity*

Abstract. The dead, particularly the war dead, play a central role in the development of nationalism, nowhere more so than in America. America's mid‐nineteenth century Civil War produced a recognisable and influential ‘cult of the dead’, comparable in its construction with similar developments in Europe following World War I. Focused on the figure of the fallen soldier, especially the volunteer soldier, this cult found physical expression in the development of national cemeteries devoted not just to the burial of those who fell in the war but to the idea of America as a nation, in the development of monuments to the dead that, again, reinforced the new national symbolism of the war era, and in the beginnings of Memorial Day, an American sacred ceremony with clear parallels with the later Armistice Day ceremonies in Europe. In all these developments, America preceded the European nations by several decades, making America a valuable case study for the role that the cult of the fallen soldier plays in national development more generally.     

The Patriot Game: Russia and the First World War

D.C.B. LTEVEN. Russia and the Origins of the First World War. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1984. Pp. 213. $25.00 (US); LEWIS H. SIEGELBAUM. The Politics of Industrial Mobilization in Russia, 1915–1917: A Study of the War-Industries Committees. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1984. Pp. xix, 312. $27.50 (US); WTLLIAM OLEASON. Alexander Guchkov and the End of the Russian Empire. Independence Square, Philadelphia: The American Philosophical Society, 1983 (Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, Volume 73, Part 3, 1983). Pp. 90. No price available.     

Detecting feigned illness during the American Civil War

The problem of feigned illness was a common one in the Civil War, afflicting both Northern and Southern military forces. The diagnostic approach of the Civil War doctor involved the initial dichotomous classification of each patient; he either suffered from physical illness (what today would be called an organic illness) or he purposely devised symptoms to avoid military service. The modern concept of the unconscious mind was totally absent from the diagnostic thinking of the Civil War physician.     

略论美国内战在经济上的代价和影响

查尔斯和玛利·比尔德在他们的名著《美国文明的兴起》中把内战称为“第二次美国革命”。这不仅仅是因为内战解放了 40 0万黑奴和废除了奴隶制 ,而且是因为比尔德夫妇认为内战推动了美国工业资本主义的迅速发展。路易斯·海克后来对此作了进一步阐发。他认为内战中的政治权力转移替“工业资本主义的代言人”提供了完成其经济蓝图的机会。海克引述为证的战时措施包括关税、《银行法》、铁路土地赠与、《宅地法》、《莫里尔法》以及《契约劳工法》等等 ①。在比尔德和海克看来 ,内战是美国资本主义经济发展中的一个分水岭或者说转折点。他们这…