Of Little Comfort: War Widows, Fallen Soldiers, and the Remaking of Nation After the Great WarDuring and especially after World War I, the millions of black-clad widows on the streets of Europe's cities were a constant reminder that war caused carnage on a vast scale. But widows were far more than just a reminder of the war's fallen soldiers; they were literal and figurative actresses in how nations crafted their identities in the interwar era. In this extremely original study, Erika Kuhlman compares the ways in which German and American widows experienced their post-war status, and how that played into the cultures of mourning in their two nations: one defeated, the other victorious. Each nation used widows and war dead as symbols to either uphold their victory or disengage from their defeat, but Kuhlman, parsing both German and U.S. primary sources, compares widows' lived experiences to public memory. For some widows, government compensation in the form of military-style awards sufficed. For others, their own deprivations, combined with those suffered by widows living in other nations, became the touchstone of a transnational awareness of the absurdity of war and the need to prevent it. |
Contents
| 1 | |
| 21 | |
Victory and Loss in the United States | 53 |
4 The Transnationalization of Soldiers Widows and War Relief | 91 |
Remarriage Pronatalism and the Rebirthing of the Nation | 123 |
Epilogue | 151 |
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Common terms and phrases
American armistice army August Macke battle Bäumer bereaved Berlin birth rate blockade Bodies of War Britain British Budreau citizens civilians conflict culture dead death dossier files economic Elisabeth Macke European female feminists fighting fought France Franz Marc Frau Frauenbewegung French Gender German Germany’s Gertrud Bäumer Gold Star Mothers grief Helene Helene Stöcker History home front honor Hurwitz-Stranz husbands ibid Illinois industrial Jay Winter Johanna Boldt Julius Krieg Kriegerwitwen Kuhlman letters lives loss loved male marriage Memory men’s Minna Cauer modern mourners mourning nation-state nations November numbers Office organization orphans pensions pilgrimages political postwar pro-natal pro-natalist records Red Cross relief remarriage remarried remembrance Robert Weldon roles roll 81 sacrifice social society soldier-husbands Stöcker survivors Thurston tion transnational U.S. Congress U.S. government U.S. military United Verlag veterans Victory war widows war’s warriors wartime Weimar Weimar Republic welfare Whalen widowhood wife wives women York