The Strange and Unsettled Memory of World War I in America

Through  the examination of a wide range of cultural artifacts (including  monuments, paintings, movies, and works of literature), this  presentation will focus on how and why World War I became America's  "forgotten war".  ironically, few conflicts in American history have  been as intensely commemorated.  Throughout the 1920's and 1930's, towns  and cities from coast to coast created literally thousands of community  war memorials, many of which still hide in plain sight today.   Hollywood embraced the war's memory as well in blockbusters like THE BIG  PARADE (1925), the second highest grossing film of the silent era, and  ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT, which swept the Oscars in 1930.   However, after the end of the Second World War, a larger and even more  transformational conflict, World War I essentially disappeared from the  national consciousness.  This presentation will consider the historical  and cultural reasons for this.

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Location:  CLE Lecture Hall

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Presenter:   Steven Trout is Professor of English and Chair of the Department of  English at the University of Alabama.  He is the author of three books -  The Vietnam Veterans Memorial at Angel Fire:  War, Remembrance, and an  American Tragedy, On the Battlefield of Memory:  The First World War and  American Remembrance, 1919-1941, and Memorial Fictions:  Willa Cather  and the First World War - and the editor or coeditor of multiple  volumes.