Bodies of War

Death and remembrance in the aftermath of the Great War By the Armistice of 1919, America's war dead numbered more than 70,000 and of those, approximately 31,000 would lie forever buried in the nation's new cemeteries overseas. The controversial decision to leave the deceased in foreign soil resulted in the unforeseen legacy of the Gold Star Pilgrim. On the eve of the Great Depression, the Coolidge Administration authorized the Gold Star Mothers and widows with next of kin buried overseas, to travel to Europe as guests of the nation. These women, known for the gold star they were urged to display on banners in their homes, had made an added sacrifice by choosing to leave the bodies of their loved ones buried in foreign soil. They had been given an unprecedented option by the government to have their deceased repatriated for home burial, but refused without prior knowledge of any future pilgrimage proposal. Pilgrimages represent a point of intersection between individual loss and national community. They serve to unite groups and nation in remembrance, while offering an opportunity for participants to come to terms with grief, thus consigning the dead to memory. The American Gold Star pilgrimages (1930-1933), offered women and the nation, a unique way to interpret the ambiguity of great human loss. In this fascinating yet often macabre account, Lisa M. Budreau reveals the complicated circumstances facing the nation after World War I, in its efforts to lay thousands of dead to rest, and how its leaders chose to honor these American sacrifices. She unpacks the politics and processes of the competing interest groups involved in the three core components of this story: repatriation, remembrance, and return. Throughout, and with sensitivity to issues of race and gender, Bodies of War emphasizes the inherent tensions in the politics of memorialization while exploring how those interests often conflicted with the needs of veterans, relatives and the nation as a whole.