Arlington National Cemetery Research Articles

The Politics of Mourning: Death and Honor in Arlington National Cemetery by Micki McElya

The Politics of Mourning: Death and Honor in Arlington National Cemetery by Micki McElya

Book Review: Dirty Words & Filthy Pictures: Film and the First Amendment by Jeremy Geltzer

Dirty Words & Filthy Pictures: Film and the First Amendment. Jeremy Geltzer. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2015. 384 pp. $29.95 pbk.In March 2016, Michael Eakin joined Seamus McCaffery as the second Pennsylvania Supreme Court justice to quit the Keystone State's high court within an 18-month span, following scandal over alleged pornographic, racist, and sexually offensive emails. Readers of Jeremy Geltzer's new book, Dirty Words and Filthy Pictures, may find this fitting karmic payback.That is because, as Geltzer reveals in what he calls film-legal history, Pennsylvania in 1911 was the first state to adopt statewide motion picture censorship law (Chicago, he tells us, was the first city to embrace such measure in 1907). The Pennsylvania statute tasked censorship board with reviewing and disapproving of movies featuring sacrilegious, obscene, indecent, or immoral content. Furthermore, as Geltzer describes it, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court from which Eakin and McCaffery recently resigned was once famously the workplace of Judge Michael Angelo Musmanno. In the 1950s, Musmanno was a zealous supporter of film censorship, known for writing fierce and fiery indictments against uncensored cinema. Make that, then, double dose of karma for Eakin and McCaffery, with Musmanno surely rolling over in his grave in Arlington National Cemetery at the alleged actions of his brethren.These are just several examples of the many filmic factoids Geltzer sprinkles into his chronological, comprehensive survey of the history and legal battles surrounding movie censorship (including self-censorship, not just the government variety) and controversies in the United States. Geltzer is well qualified to address the push and pull between the forces of government regulation and freedom of expression that frequently finds cinematic works caught in the middle. A California-based intellectual property attorney who worked as in-house counsel for several major Hollywood studios, Geltzer also teaches, including course taught in Spring 2016 for UCLA Extension called Cinema, Law & Censorship.The vast territory covered in this mile-wide, foot-deep (definitely more than an inch in some places, but not all) tome stretches from stirs in the 1890s caused by movies such as The Kiss and The Dolorita Passion Dance through the 2013 sentencing in Los Angeles of Ira Isaacs to 48 months in prison for distributing obscene videos featuring bestiality and scatology. In between, Geltzer covers, in often alliterative fashion, everything from the Supreme Court's initial rejection and later recognition of films as form of expression safeguarded by the First Amendment to the high court's shifting definitions of obscenity. The author touches on all genres of films that have faced the wrath of both moral custodians and prosecutors over the years. Prizefighting pictures were an early target (Maine banned them in 1897), for instance, as were sacrilegious films, war movies, and those with drug-based themes, such as provocateur Otto Preminger's The Man With the Golden Arm, starring Frank Sinatra. …

Book Review: Peter Gardella: American Civil Religion: What Americans Hold Sacred

The idea that nationalism and national history can rise to the level of sacred significance has been around since the 1960s when Robert Bellah named it ‘‘civil religion.’’ In his new book, Peter Gardella adds needed richness and detail to Bellah’s concept by systematically describing the monuments, artifacts, texts, songs, images, and places that actually constitute civil religion in the United States. In its particularities, the book is largely oriented toward history and description, although the goal in view is always to add texture to this classic concept in the study of religion. The first chapter introduces the concept of civil religion, mentions several examples of civil religion in the US, and briefly uses the history of (what came to be known as) the Liberty Bell to outline seven phases of America’s civil religion. Those phases are the colonial (or primal) phase, the revolutionary (or classical) phase, the national (or continental) phase, the sacrificial phase (during the Civil War era), the imperial phase (from reconstruction through World War I), the global phase (from the 1930s through the war in Vietnam), and finally a multicultural phase. From there, Gardella presents the elements of American civil religion in a series of 32 short chapters. The topics covered are quite exhaustive, ranging from Jamestown and Plymouth Rock and even the very word ‘‘America’’ to Disney Parks and the 9/11 Memorial in Lower Manhattan. Five patriotic songs each receive their own chapters, as do the flag, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Washington Monument, Arlington National Cemetery, and the speeches of MLK

Civil War General and Indian Fighter James M. Williams: Leader of the 1st Kansas Colored Volunteer Infantry and the 8th US Cavalry by Robert W. Lull (review)

Reviewed by: Civil War General and Indian Fighter James M. Williams: Leader of the 1st Kansas Colored Volunteer Infantry and the 8th US Cavalry by Robert W. Lull Michael Burns Civil War General and Indian Fighter James M. Williams: Leader of the 1st Kansas Colored Volunteer Infantry and the 8th US Cavalry. By Robert W. Lull. Denton: University of North Texas Press, 2013. ix + 289 pp. Illustrations, maps, notes, bibliography, index. $24.95 cloth. The military campaigns of the American Civil War in the Trans-Mississippi West have received [End Page 311] little attention from historians. In his biography of James M. Williams, the original commander of the Union’s First Kansas Colored Volunteer Infantry and an officer with the US Regulars after the war, Robert W. Lull provides a depiction of the frontier’s Civil War as well as the army’s role in westward expansion after 1865. Williams contributed to many important events in the Great Plains, both as a peripheral and central player. After arriving in Kansas in 1856, Williams, a staunch abolitionist, took part in Bleeding Kansas, established the First Kansas Colored Infantry in 1862, and ably led it and eventually a brigade through most of the Trans-Mississippi Civil War. While commanding, Williams supported the equal treatment of black officers and soldiers. After the conflict, Williams joined the Eighth US Cavalry in Arizona and New Mexico territories. Wounded while on patrol in July 1867 and discharged as a result, Williams settled in Colorado and remained active with the Grand Army of the Republic. He died in Washington dc in February 1907 and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery. While Lull tracks Williams’s entire life, he primarily focuses on the Civil War years. This provides an interesting opportunity to discuss the racial dynamics of the conflict in the Great Plains. Williams led white, black, and Indian soldiers into battle, and his men fought both white and Indian Confederates. This racial tension led to atrocities on both sides, but Lull focuses mainly on those of white Confederates against black troops. The unique nature of battle in the Trans-Mississippi West also emerges from the narrative. Unlike the large-scale traditional battles east of the Mississippi, the fighting that involved the First Kansas consisted of primarily small unit actions and hit-and-run attacks. This type of warfare, Lull argues, prepared Williams for his post–Civil War command. As a former military officer himself, Lull’s discussions of military actions are the greatest strength of his study. Outside the military dimensions, Lull’s study possesses some weaknesses. As is common with many biographies, Williams comes off as a one-dimensional hero who rarely made mistakes. Providing some discussion of Williams’s personal or professional problems that resulted from his own actions would have made him even more interesting. Despite the book’s purpose, Williams disappears at times, making it seem like a history of the First Kansas Colored Infantry rather than a biography. Additionally, Lull’s section on the Indian Wars employs a fairly traditional approach. The Apache emerge as obstacles to American progress and the US Army as the vehicle of American civilization. Little complexity exists. Yet Lull interprets a little-known theater of the American Civil War. Using Williams as a central character adds a humanistic dimension to the mid-to late-nineteenth century conflicts in the West. As a result, Lull shows how historians can still employ biographies to explore larger concepts of American history. Michael Burns Department of History and Geography Texas Christian University Copyright © 2015 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska–Lincoln

Remembering the Civil War: Reunion and the Limits of Reconciliation by Caroline E. Janney (review)

Reviewed by: Remembering the Civil War: Reunion and the Limits of Reconciliation by Caroline E. Janney W. Fitzhugh Brundage (bio) Remembering the Civil War: Reunion and the Limits of Reconciliation. By Caroline E. Janney. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2013. Pp. 464. Cloth, $35.00.) Remembering the Civil War is an important and daring book. It challenges, forthrightly but respectfully, ascendant ideas about Civil War memory during the century after the Civil War. According to Caroline E. Janney, the memory of the Civil War remained a raw scar and an ongoing source of rancor long after a culture of national reconciliation purportedly took hold. The implications of Janney’s argument are important for how we understand not just the postbellum memory of the conflict, but also the regional and national legacy of that memory to the present day. Any reader familiar with David Blight’s acclaimed Race and Reunion (2001) will discern that Remembering the Civil War offers extended dissent from its tale of national declension. Blight’s magisterial book has a juggernaut narrative that stresses the dialectical relationship between white northern and southern memory. According to Blight, national reconciliation necessitated a willful amnesia about the role of race, slavery, and black agency in the Civil War. For white northerners, it cost little, as victors, to ignore the black memory of the war or the central place of emancipation in it. For white southerners, parroting bromides about reconciliation was a fair trade for northern paeans to white southern principles and valor. Blight’s book has had tremendous resonance because of its poignancy; it complements our contemporary recognition of the shallowness of the nation’s commitment to the principles of freedom and liberty during much of its history. [End Page 326] Janney’s most important contribution may be to draw our attention to those postbellum Americans who were earnest, vociferous, and articulate disputants in the lively contest to define the war’s meaning. These white and black, northern and southern men and women were willing to entertain the possibility of reconciliation, but only on their own terms. One after another, they displayed little interest in sectional appeasement or healing. Instead, they were tenacious in their insistence that their wartime enemies were depraved, cruel, and unprincipled. Janney builds on her earlier work and that of other scholars published since the appearance of Race and Reunion that have broadened our understanding of the diverse communities and motivations at work in postbellum commemoration. Whereas Blight’s interest gravitated to the printed word, Janney’s gaze tends as much or more in the direction of public ceremony and organized commemoration. Some of the same prisoners of war, women’s organizations, and veterans take the stage in both Blight’s and Janney’s book. Yet comparatively obscure veterans, women, and African Americans are more visible participants in Janney’s account. These advocates of memory were far less inclined to acclaim sectional détente than were the editors of Century magazine, public intellectuals, or literary lions. And by tracing this mnemonic contest up to World War II, Janney emphasizes the persistence of the disputants. Indeed, the erection of a Confederate monument at Arlington National Cemetery and the building of the Lincoln Memorial across the Potomac River from the cemetery are, for Janney, just another thrust and counterthrust in the decades-long struggle over the war’s meaning. By carrying her story past the oft-discussed fiftieth anniversary of Appomattox, Janney necessarily highlights the crucial role of women in twentieth-century commemoration. Whereas the commemorative activities of veterans have sometimes been privileged in previous histories of postbellum memory, Janney places women, northern and southern, white and black, at the center of the commemorative project. As Janney explains, they raised the money, mobilized their communities, organized the memorial dedications, explained their causes in speeches, and displayed a doggedness that few aging veterans could equal. If some veterans of the war elected to shake hands and reconcile, many more women along the fault lines of the conflict seemingly spurned even token gestures of reconciliation. Other scholars have dwelled on women as guardians of memory, but Janney offers the fullest and most compelling treatment of their essential contribution to...

The making and unmaking of an unknown soldier

For 18 years, from 1984 to 1998, the Vietnam crypt of the Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington National Cemetery housed the remains of a soldier whose anonymity helped shoulder a nation’s grief and fuel its memory. They were those of First Lieutenant Michael J. Blassie, an Air Force pilot shot down over hostile territory in southern Vietnam in 1972. On 14 May 1998, Blassie’s then-unrecognized remains became the only set at the memorial to be disinterred and identified – an act that signaled an important shift in forensic practice and the state’s means of commemorating its missing and unknown members of the military. Tracing the story of the Vietnam Unknown’s (de)identification, this article examines the gradual though foundational reframing of the connection between national memory and identity expressed through care for those who ‘made the ultimate sacrifice’. Whereas memorials of the past, such as the Tomb of the Unknowns, emphasized collective or anonymous groupings of war dead in articulating national identity, the changing technology of identification, particularly brought about by advances in DNA testing, has enabled individuated memorializing. Naming each dead soldier, returning each set of remains to surviving families, no matter how partial or delayed, personalizes the ideals of sacrifice and honor embodied in the fallen soldier and invites localized, communal remembrance. The shifts in technology and memory that have rewritten the story of the Vietnam Unknown not only altered modes of national commemoration, but also lay bare the connections between how war itself is waged, death justified, and a nation defined through its care for war dead.

We Have Lost a Titan

It is with sadness that I report on the passing of one of our distinguished colleagues. Morris D. Kerstein, MD, Rear Admiral, US Navy (Ret), 75, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, died in February from renal failure complications. He was a well-respected academic vascular surgeon and leader in the wound care field. Dr Kerstein served on the peer-review panel for Advances in Skin & Wound Care for several years. Born in Trenton, New Jersey, Dr Kerstein graduated from Colgate University in Hamilton, New York, and earned his medical degree from the University of Chicago Medical School in Illinois in 1963. Dr Kerstein was a renaissance man—being a physician was his job and medicine was his hobby, and he also loved music. He was active in military medicine, vascular surgery, and was a quintessential mentor—his humanity was bigger than his ego. His true passion, though, was teaching and mentoring his medical residents and fellows, said his son, Lars. “He took such pride in the success of his students and fellows and kept in touch with them throughout their careers.” Dr Kerstein held academic appointments at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut; the University of Chicago; Tulane University School of Medicine, New Orleans, Louisiana, where he was also associate dean; Hahnemann University School of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he was chairman of surgery; and Mount Sinai Hospital and Medical Center, New York, New York, where he was vice chairman and director of research in the department of surgery. He was adjunct professor at Thomas Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Academic Career Dr Kerstein’s publications number more than 700, representing manuscripts in peer-reviewed journals and abstracts. He has edited and published multiple books and numerous book chapters, periodicals, monographs, and supplements. He was a member of many professional societies and also served as a distinguished visiting professor nationally and internationally. His various leadership roles over the years included the presidency of the Vascular Society and the Wound Healing Society. Dr Kerstein was also a member of the National Pressure Ulcer Advisory Panel. His research funding has totaled more than $1 million. In 2005, Dr Kerstein was honored by the Association of Women Surgeons, who recognized him for his advocacy of women in surgery and mentoring of women trainees. Dr Kerstein expressed that he never intended to become an advocate for women in surgery. “I never thought that women in my field could be any different than men,” he stated. “My only advice to a woman considering surgery is to follow your heart.” Dr Kerstein was an early adopter and leader in the concept of interprofessional education and practice.Morris D. Kerstein, MDService to Our Country Dr Kerstein’s ability to excel in dual career tracks was exemplified by his sustained meritorious service to our country in the US Navy Medical Corps, which he joined in 1963, serving 2 years in the Vietnam Theater of Operations as a US Navy trauma surgeon. In addition, he served in the US Navy Reserve, in support of operations in Beirut and during Desert Storm. While in the US Navy, Dr Kerstein’s research paper titled, “Water as a Tactical Weapon: A Doctrine for Preventing Heat Casualties,” was instrumental in setting new guidelines for rapid deployment of troops in hot climates. After a distinguished career in military medicine, Dr Kerstein retired in 1993 at the rank of Rear Admiral. He was also on the faculty of the Uniformed Service University in Bethesda, Maryland. His last assignment in support of our veterans was as chief of staff at the VA Medical Center in Wilmington, Delaware. Dr Kerstein was a life member of the Association of Military Surgeons and was a member of the Naval Order of the United States, which includes many prominent admirals who have distinguished themselves in the annals of our nation’s naval history. He was a recipient of many awards and decorations including the Association of Military Surgeons Medal of the United States. Personal Life In addition to his son Lars, Dr Kerstein is survived by his wife of 32 years, Margaret Schwedler-Kerstein, MD, who is a clinical associate professor of anesthesia and director of Ambulatory Anesthesia, Jefferson Surgery Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and 1 grandchild. Dr Kerstein will be laid to rest with full military honors on April 11, 2013, at Virginia’s Arlington National Cemetery. We will greatly miss him in the wound care community, but his contributions to surgical medicine, wound care, and national service will continue to exemplify a higher standard that we can all strive to achieve.FigureRichard “Sal” Salcido, MD

The Arlington Cemetery Case: A Court and a Nation Divided

Seventeen years after the Confederate general Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox, his eldest son won a sweeping victory over the federal government in the United States Supreme Court. On December 4, 1882, the Supreme Court upheld a federal trial court's ruling that the United States government's claim of title to Arlington National Cemetery rested on an invalid tax sale. The Justices thus affirmed the lower court's verdict that George Washington Custis Lee (“Custis Lee”), eldest son of Mary and Robert E. Lee, held legal title to Arlington. The Supreme Court also upheld the lower court's decision to permit Custis Lee to bring suit against the government officers who occupied Arlington. On the latter point, the Justices split 5 to 4, with a majority ruling for Custis Lee. The outcome of United States v. Lee, commonly known as the Arlington case, made it clear that the Lee family, and not the United States government, owned Arlington.

Individual and group identity in WWII commemorative sites

Five sites commemorating large-scale mortuary events are compared in order to discover how individual and collective identities are created, maintained, and lost in memorials such as cemeteries and monuments. These five sites, the American Military Cemetery in Normandy, France; the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, USA; Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, USA; Auschwitz-Birkenau outside Oświęcim, Poland; and Treblinka outside Malkinia, Poland, are locations that memorialise thousands of people and are linked through their connection to the events of World War II. The creation of military and prisoner identities during the war is analysed and the factors affecting commemoration are identified. The sites are analysed according to their geographic location, headstone designs, organisation, and erected monuments. Four commonalities among these commemorative sites are identified: symbolic location, attention to symmetry, the heterogeneous nature of the dead being subsumed into the collective identity, and the dead being given an artificial equality.

The Arlington Cemetery Case: A Court and a Nation Divided

The Arlington Cemetery Case: A Court and a Nation Divided ANTHONY J. GAUGHAN Seventeen years after the Confederate general Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox, his eldest son won a sweeping victory over the federal government in the United States Supreme Court. On December 4, 1882, the Supreme Court upheld a federal trial court’s ruling that the United States government’s claim of title to Arlington National Cemetery rested on an invalid tax sale. The Justices thus affirmed the lower court’s verdict that George Washington Custis Lee (“Custis Lee”), eldest son of Mary and Robert E. Lee, held legal title to Arlington. The Supreme Court also upheld the lower court’s decision to permit Custis Lee to bring suit against the government officers who occupied Arlington. On the latter point, the Justices split 5 to 4, with a majority ruling for Custis Lee. The outcome of United States v. Lee, commonly known as the Arlington case, made it clear that the Lee family, and not the United States government, owned Arlington. The Arlington case arose from a fascinat­ ing historical background. Prior to the Civil War, Arlington was a slave plantation owned by Mary Lee, the wife ofRobert E. Lee and the great-granddaughter of Martha Washington. The Lee family home—known as Arlington House—stood atop a sprawling, 1100-acre hillside estate along the Virginia side of the Potomac River. Arlington’s location provided its residents with a spectacular view ofthe na­ tion’s capital. But the qualities that made the Lee estate so attractive also posed a threat to the City ofWashington. ArlingtonHouse stood just over two miles from the White House and three and a half miles from the Capitol building; the estate property near the Potomac was even closer. If the Confederates had oc­ cupied Arlington, they could have rained ar­ tillery shells on the White House and other government buildings. Federal control of Ar­ lington was thus essential to the security ofthe nation’s capital.1 As the Civil War began, the Lee family home at Arlington stood in the line of fire between North and South. For three decades before the war, Robert E. Lee served as a ca­ reer United States army officer. But after the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter in April 2 JOURNAL OF SUPREME COURT HISTORY Mary Lee, the wife of Robert E. Lee and the great-granddaughter of Martha Washington, inherited Arlington House, a slave plantation that stood atop a sprawling, 1,100-acre hillside estate along the Virginia side of the Potomac River. Robert E. Lee’s bedroom is pictured above. 1861, Lee resigned from the U.S. Army and accepted a commission as a general officer in the Confederate Army. Lee’s decision to side with his home state of Virginia and the Confederacy sealed Arlington’s fate. On the night of May 24, 1861, 10,000 Union soldiers commanded by General Charles W. Sandford crossed the Potomac River from Washington D.C. and occupied the Lee estate at Arlington. When the Union troops arrived at Arlington House, they discovered that the Lees had al­ ready departed to Richmond. Only the family’s servants remained behind to be awakened by the soldiers.2 There was no question that the army had a legal right to seize the Arlington estate. The courts have long recognized that the President and the military have the authority to seize private property during wartime emergencies. In the 1851 case of Mitchell v. Harmony, the Supreme Court held, “There are, with­ out doubt, occasions in which private prop­ erty may lawfully be taken possession of or destroyed to prevent it from falling into the hands of the public enemy.”3 At the same time, however, the Court also emphasized that the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment remained in effect during wartime. However, as the Justices noted in their ruling in Mitchell, “Unquestionably, in such cases, the government is bound to make full compensation to the owner” of property seized by the military.4 Nevertheless, for more than twenty years after Arlington’s seizure, Congress refused to pay compensation to Mary Lee, Arlington’s legal owner, or her son and heir...

“You Can’t Change History”—Unless by Misremembering

“You Can’t Change History”—Unless by Misremembering Michael Kammen (bio) Erika Doss. Memorial Mania: Public Feeling in America. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2010. xvii + 458 pp. Illustrations, notes, and index. $25.00. Erika Doss (American Studies, University of Notre Dame) wonders “why do we make memorials in America today—and why do we make so many of them” (p. 1). The word “today” appears often and is one key to comprehending and appreciating her project, because she deals largely with permanent and temporary memorials from the past twenty-five years, along with quite a few that have been planned, even authorized, yet remain unbuilt or incomplete because of contestation or lack of funds. The book is not unhistorical, however, because, wherever needed or appropriate, she refers back to memorials from the late nineteenth century onward in order to highlight discontinuities of style and motivation caused by political or cultural change. Sites and people afflicted by terrorist attacks, primarily a phenomenon less than two decades old, occupy much of Doss’ attention. Memorials prompted by the events of September 11, 2001, prick the national landscape like a full pin-cushion, not just in Lower Manhattan, the Pentagon, and at Shanksville, Pennsylvania. The book is remarkable in several respects. First, it is meticulously thorough, almost to a fault. The author mentions and describes a great many memorials, extant and planned, that will be unfamiliar to many. The author’s choice of “mania” sends a clear message that there is now an obsessive proliferation, and as it happens, at vast expense. Memorials are costly, and at times it feels as though involved parties think that the persons or events being memorialized would be shamefully degraded unless the fund-raising challenge for a project turned out to be mind-boggling in scope. Second, the book is organized topically, which certainly makes sense as an alternative to plowing along in chronological order, which would have been tedious and would have made explanatory efforts to determine similarities and differences much more difficult to highlight. The net effect, however, perhaps inevitably, is a considerable amount of repetition and the somewhat jarring revisitation of various sites, as they illustrate subcategories of Doss’ larger rubrics that define chapters. Following a historical overview chapter [End Page 673] that sweeps from “Statue Mania to Memorial Mania” (mainly 1870s to the 1920s), Doss turns to grief, fear, gratitude, shame, and anger as categories of analysis, each with multiple exemplars. Some cases might very well have been placed in a different chapter, but that is allayed by redeploying episodes whose primary treatment occurs in one place but can also be helpfully illustrative of a key point or rubric elsewhere. The “Grief” chapter highlights the Columbine High School massacre in Littleton, Colorado (1999) and the Oklahoma City Memory Fence (1995), but also the National Memorial for the Unborn, Wall of Names, in Chattanooga (1994) and the National [organ] Donor Memorial in Richmond (2003). Some I knew about and some I didn’t. The “Fear” chapter begins with the Lockerbie Memorial Cairn at Arlington National Cemetery and thoughtfully explores “terrorism memorials and security narratives.” In addition to the 9/11 memorials, there is a fine discussion of the new phenomenon that Doss calls “tragic tourism” and an illuminating explanation of why minimalism has become the preferred style for memorials ever since the stunning success of Maya Lin’s Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., gradually after 1982. Chapter four, “Gratitude,” has much to say about the World War II Memorial in Washington (2004) and makes the important point that it was by no means the first, as so many veterans and journalists insisted during the 1990s and millennium years. There had been many “lesser” ones, beginning with the U.S. Marine Corps Memorial in Arlington (1954). Perhaps understandably, expectations grew that there needed to be a very lavish one located prominently on the Mall, larger than a football field, rather than, as first planned, “obscurely” situated near the Vietnam Memorial (the most widely visited of any in the country). Chapter five, “Shame,” places the greatest emphasis on atrocities committed against American minority groups: African Americans, Indians, and especially the Japanese internment camps during...

On Hallowed Ground: The Story of Arlington National Cemetery

On Hallowed Ground: The Story of Arlington National Cemetery

Remembering 9/11's Pentagon Victims and Reframing History in Arlington National Cemetery

On September 12, 2002, the defense secretary, Donald H. Rumsfeld, presided over the burial with full military honors of a single casket in Arlington National Cemetery containing both unidentified and identified remains representing all 184 victims of the 9/11 attack on the Pentagon, a group that included civilian and military personnel on the ground and the crew and passengers of American Airlines Flight 77. Military spokespeople had taken great pains to ensure the public that none of the hijackers’ remains were among those in the coffin. Before the interment, Rumsfeld addressed a crowd of more than one thousand mourners in the Memorial Amphitheater at the Tomb of the Unknowns; it

Biocolonization of Stone: Control and Preventive Methods: Proceeedings from the MCI Workshop Series

The Smithsonian Museum Conservation Institute Workshop on Biocolonization of Stone was the second workshop in a series and was dedicated to research on removal and control of biocolonization in stone objects. Twelve presentations were made, and the workshop ended with a roundtable discussion open to the 71 attendees. The goal was to provide a discussion forum for biologists, material scientists, and conservators interested in stone biodeterioration. Seven papers were presented, ranging from microbiological laboratory studies to combination of on-site testing and laboratory evaluation for World Heritage Sites such as Angkor Wat, to a literature overview. Five case studies were also presented, covering control of biodeterioration at Veterans Affairs cemeteries, experience gathered from the installation of zinc strips at the Stanford Mausoleum in San Francisco, the red staining found on the marble of the Memorial Amphitheater at Arlington National Cemetery, problems posed by deer stones in Mongolia, and the site test installed at San Ignacio Miní Jesuit mission in Misiones, Argentina. The roundtable and discussions drew attention to the importance of exploring new methods to prevent microbial colonization of stone. Finally, in a closed session, suggestions were offered for developing criteria to evaluate microbial growth and determine when treatment is necessary. It was recommended that a database be prepared on stone biocolonization and its control.

The Reminiscences of Major General Zenas R. Bliss, 1854–1876 ed. by Thomas T. Smith, et al. (review)

This book spotlights a glaring void still waiting to be filled in South Texas history : a comparable, scholarly biography of Henrietta King is sorely needed. In 1986 Mary Virginia Fox wrote A Queen Named King: Henrietta of the King Ranch, a seventy-six-page work published by Eakin Press, aimed at the juvenile book market . In 2005 Judy Alter authored a second juvenile history, Henrietta King: Rancher and Philanthropist, a seventy-two-page paperback issued by State House Press. One hopes that Petra’s Legacy will now inspire a similar, well-researched, full-length adult study of this important South Texas matriarch. Jane Clements Monday and Frances Brannen Vick’s book exemplifies women’s studies (and Texas history for that matter) at its finest. For those considering research or a career in women’s history, Petra’s Legacy provides an excellent signpost on how to proceed. Texas Christian University Glen Sample Ely The Reminiscences of Major General Zenas R. Bliss, 1854–1876. Edited by Thomas T. Smith, Jerry D. Thompson, Robert Wooster, and Ben E. Pingenot. (Austin: Texas State Historical Association, 2007. Pp. 750. Map, black-and-white plates, notes, bibliography, index. ISBN 978-0-87611-226-7. $39.95, cloth.) Before and after the Civil War, Rhode Island native Zenas R. Bliss served in the United States Army in West Texas, a land where everything was “peculiar” (p. 86). His detailed reminiscences include lively descriptions of military posts, Mexican settlements, various Indian groups, soldier life, topography, and wildlife. Bliss participated in the surrender of Federal troops and military installations to Confederates in Texas in 1861. He spent most of the Civil War’s first year as a prisoner of war in San Antonio, including what he deemed a leisurely summer. Confederate Texans proved less tolerant of the Federals in their midst as the fighting elsewhere intensified, and Bliss eventually grew disgusted with the United States government for what he considered a lack of effort to secure the prisoners’ exchange. After a brief imprisonment in Richmond, Virginia, Bliss was exchanged and eventually fought in the Battle of Fredericksburg, for which service he was later awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. In 1863 he took part in the capture of Vicksburg before returning to Virginia to serve in the Overland Campaign of 1864. During that campaign Bliss participated in the infamous Battle of the Crater and was one of several officers censured by an investigative board for their actions during that incident. Bliss’s account of his postwar service includes a brief yet exceptionally interesting description of his stint with the Freedman’s Bureau in South Carolina, before shifting to his eventual return to West Texas. The book’s final five chapters chronicle Bliss’s experiences commanding Fort Duncan, Fort Stockton, Camp Concordia, Fort Bliss, and Fort Davis in West Texas at various times from 1870 to 1876. While at Fort Duncan he initiated the enlistment of SeminoleNegro Indians as army scouts, though his commentary on the subject is limited. Although the reminiscences end in 1876, Bliss served in Texas again during the 1880s and commanded a black unit at Fort Elliott. He retired as a major general in 1897, died in 1900, and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery. 324 Southwestern Historical Quarterly January *jan 09 11/26/08 12:00 PM Page 324 The editors have rendered a significant service to students of Texas history by making more readily available a valuable resource for the study of the antebellum and postwar Texas frontier. A brief introduction provides a biographical sketch of Bliss and offers insights into the editorial process. The original manuscript included more than twelve hundred pages that the editors skillfully trimmed for publication. Their final product boasts ample detail regarding daily life in West Texas without drifting too far from the primary narrative, while the introduction and careful notations impart additional insight into Bliss’s personality . For example, the soldier claimed several times throughout the manuscript that he did not use notes and worked strictly from memory. The editors make clear, however, that Bliss was a careful note-taker during his career and that many stories were simply too detailed to have been reproduced from memory alone...

Myrna Loy: Co‐Principal Investigator

Myrna Loy: Co‐Principal Investigator

Cities of the Dead: Contesting the Memory of the Civil War in the South, 1865-1914 (review)

Reviewed by: Cities of the Dead: Contesting the Memory of the Civil War in the South, 1865–1914 Anne Sarah Rubin Cities of the Dead: Contesting the Memory of the Civil War in the South, 1865–1914. By William A. Blair. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2004. Pp. 250. $34.95.) In Cities of the Dead, William Blair reminds us that memorial celebrations in the post–Civil War South were much more than simple affairs of remembrance. Rather, he argues, parades, speeches, and the decoration of graves were fundamentally political events, even as those political meanings changed with the decades. This [End Page 57] was equally true for both ex-Confederates, who used Decoration Day ceremonies to unify whites, and African Americans, whose Emancipation Day celebrations repeatedly called for full black political participation. Blair traces the political conflicts that accompanied white Southern memorial efforts. Ex-Confederate men and women used Decoration days as a means to keep the memory of the Confederacy alive and as a way to express resentment of Reconstruction, while simultaneously professing loyalty to the Union. What resulted, particularly during Radical Reconstruction, was a contest over the control of public space with Southern whites wanting full control over memorial activities and Republicans unwilling to grant it. With the end of Reconstruction came a shift in Confederate memorialization: a new emphasis on the contributions of the common soldier, which neatly dovetailed with Democratic party ambitions. In addition, this focus on ordinary soldiers allowed white Southerners to argue that in their memorial efforts they were asking only for equal, not special, treatment, and sped the path toward sectional reunion. Even in reunion, however, as Blair points out in his final chapter on Arlington National Cemetery, politics and sectionalism continued to intrude. One of the strengths of this book is the way that Blair explores white and African American memorialization efforts in tandem, and his argument about the importance of politics is especially powerful when he looks at Emancipation Day celebrations. While the date may have varied—some places celebrated in September, some in January, some in April, some in June—the ways in which African Americans used parades and speeches to make their case for full political citizenship did not. By focusing specifically on the political content of these festivals, Blair is able to unpack the complexities of the relationship between African Americans and the Republican party. He deftly illuminates the ways that African Americans had their own political agendas and desires, which did not always dovetail with those of the national Republican party. With the coming of disfranchisement (coinciding with the reunification of white Northerners and Southerners), Emancipation days lost much of their political salience, though they continued to function as presentations of civic virtue. While Cities of the Dead performs a useful function in illuminating the political content of these commemorations, it ultimately suffers from its narrow focus. The past several years have seen a veritable parade of studies of memory and commemoration in post–Civil War America. Blair therefore chose to focus specifically on politics, eschewing "the construction of memory . . . religious symbolism . . . statuary, other material culture, battlefield preservation, veterans reunions, historical societies, or any mechanism beyond the invention of traditions" [End Page 58] (x). Certainly, the politics of commemoration were important, and have sometimes been overlooked, and Blair does an excellent job of tracing the subtleties of political discourse. He also integrates the role of women, both white and black, into his argument, tracing their struggles to remain part of these ceremonial occasions. But by looking only at politics, and almost exclusively at Emancipation and Decoration days, Blair excludes much of the richness from his story. His argument is convincing to the point of seeming repetitive, and it would have benefited considerably from exploring other facets of these commemorations. A lesser, but not insignificant issue comes from the book's focus on Virginia, with only a few examples from South Carolina and Louisiana. Remembrance in Virginia, and especially in the former Confederate capital of Richmond, seems to have been especially contested, and one is left wondering how these battles might have played out across the region as a whole. Criticisms aside, however, this book...

As history repeats itself, unexpected developments move us forward

As long as our country has been involved in war, men and women have sacrificed life and limb serving this great nation in the pursuit of freedom. The unwavering commitment enter battle comes with a trust in their fellow soldier and the peace of mind that in the event of injury, our great nation will provide the very best for our veterans. The Departments of Veterans Affairs (VA) and Defense (DoD) have a long history of being the leaders in medical care and research in the quest for the most effective treatment interventions and devices with the mission of caring for those who have served. The benefits for veterans of the United States dates back 1636, when the Pilgrims of Plymouth colony were at war with the Pequot Indians and a law was passed by the Pilgrims which stated that any disabled soldier would be cared for by the colony. In 1776, the Continental Congress authorized half-pay pensions for life for those with loss of limb or other serious disability. Only 3,000 Revolutionary War veterans ever drew any pensions [1]. The Civil War was the bloodiest war in U.S. history with over 30,000 Union soldiers and 40,000 Confederate soldiers losing limbs during the 4 years between 1861 and 1865. Prior the war, only 500 of the 11,000 Northern physicians and 27 of 3,000 Southern physicians had performed surgery. Most had 2 years or less of medical school and learned perform surgery through on-the-job training. Because more than 70 percent of the Civil War wounds were limbs, countless wounded overflowed field hospitals after battle, and because of doctors' limited surgical skills, amputations were the treatment of choice, especially because the average procedure took less than 10 minutes [2]. The mortality rate from a primary amputation was 28 percent; however, if a secondary amputation was performed, the mortality rose 58 percent. If infections such as pyemia, or pus in the blood, occurred, the mortality rate was over 90 percent [3]. The post-Civil War era pushed the Government embrace the care of soldiers returning home since every family in the United States had been touched in one way or another by the war. Accordingly, the VA's motto is taken from President Lincoln's second inaugural address in 1865, where he asked Congress to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow, and his orphan. However, not until 1873 did Congress authorize the revision of disability pensions be paid based on the degree of disability rather than rank, establish the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, and decide that Arlington National Cemetery would be the place for burial of honorably discharged veterans [1]. The postwar opportunities ushered in the age of entrepreneurship that was sparked by Great Civil War Benefaction, or the U.S. Government commitment provide prostheses all veterans. The most famous was a young engineering student, J. E. Hanger, who lost his leg above the knee early in the war serving in the Confederate Army. Discontented with his prosthesis, he set about improve the function of his artificial leg. He obtained an exclusive contract provide limbs Confederate amputee veterans and was constantly in competition for Federal contracts with another firm founded by Dr. Douglas Bly of Rochester, New York. Both companies claimed offer veterans the lightest prosthetic limb, weighing just less than 12 pounds. The U.S. Patent Office received numerous prosthesis designs, most of which could be worn by only a select few amputees. With just over 200 prosthetic clinics serving veterans throughout the United States, many extraordinary claims were made about the capability of a prosthesis, few were comfortable, and most veterans found crutches be a more efficient means of ambulation [4]. Many prostheses were provided by traveling salesmen who scouted potential amputee customers from newspaper articles, local hospitals, or word of mouth. …

Essay: Development of children's creativity to foster peace

Peace-making as merely a subdiscipline of statecraft has little value when any small group can cause unimaginable destruction, and violence becomes a socially accepted response to perceived threats. For a global culture of peace to be built, the next generation must be imbued with new systems of thinking and feeling. Such approaches are the domain of cognitive science, translated through practice into perceptual and behavioural change. This essay describes an art-based programme to develop creativity and empathy in young people living in a confl ict zone. Research suggests that creativity can be nurtured by a holistic approach to child development encompassing cognitive, physical, and emotional capacity. Heilman and colleagues wrote that “although extensive knowledge and divergent thinking are critical for creativity, they alone are insuffi cient for allowing a person to fi nd the thread that unites. Finding this thread might require the building of diff erent forms of knowledge ... through coactivation and communication between regions of the brain that ordinarily are not strongly connected.” The arts can aid a child’s holistic development, especially empathy, which is defi ned as the ability to identify and express one’s own emotions and to read another’s emotions correctly and comprehensively. A RAND study noted that the communicative and personal nature of creative expression, accentuated through collective arts activities, can forge social bonds while supporting identity formation and cultural transmission. The power of the group transcends the sum of individual eff orts. A working hypothesis is that the arts stimulate a problem-fi nding attitude that can be used in non-arts areas, including confl ict resolution. David Perkins of Harvard Project Zero has argued that the arts provide a sensory anchor, are instantly accessible, and engage and sustain attention, thereby encouraging rich connections. Such beliefs are supported by testimonials from children who have taken part in creative arts programmes developed by the International Child Art Foundation (ICAF): creativity “leads us to innovation”; “lets me express what I think and feel in diff erent ways”; and “decorates the artwork with a sense of uniqueness”. ICAF has developed methods to nurture the innate creativity and intrinsic empathy of children and young people. With nearly a decade’s experience, ICAF programmes initiate a developmental and sequential process of healing, creativity, communication, empathy, and cooperation. This progression is illustrated in the Peace through Arts approach, developed after the attacks in the USA on Sept 11, 2001. The initiative was spurred on by the spontaneous artistic expressions of sadness and support from children in the USA and around the world who sent ICAF their unsolicited works. The approach aims to diminish the transgenerational transmission of trauma and hatred, and draws on the creativity and imagination of young people in teaching them the ethics of responsibility and mutual respect. It fi rst helps children to recognise their responses to trauma, then to understand the reasons for confl ict and how artistic expression can reduce tensions. Subsequent modules impart confi dence and develop empathy through the experience of collective creativity and provide action steps for children to apply their creativity toward building a vision of peace in their communities. The Cypriot Peace through Art project is a good example. The 3-week programme in Washington DC involved ten Greek-Cypriot and ten Turkish-Cypriot children, then aged 14–15 years, who had grown up on opposite sides of the “green line” that partitions Cyprus. Participants were selected on the basis of an art competition organised by the Cyprus Fulbright Commission. Before going to Washington, each participant constructed a poster board titled “Myself”, describing his or her home and family, hobbies, pets, and favourite things to do. At the fi rst meeting, the poster boards served to overcome the teenagers’ natural hesitation in introducing themselves. They continued to explore issues of self-identity and “the other” in their fi rst activity, which was to produce artistic impressions. For Ashfaq Ishaq is Executive Director of the International Child Art Foundation, which uses the arts to enable children to lead us to a better and safer world by developing their innate creativity and intrinsic empathy.

Forensic Anthropology

Previous articleNext article FreeCurrent ApplicationsForensic AnthropologyE.R.WaymanE.R.Wayman Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmailQR Code SectionsMoreAn Anthropological Education through Fictional AnthropologyAs a forensic anthropologist for Quebecs Laboratoire des Sciences Judiciares et de Mdecine Lgale and an anthropology professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Temperance Brennan has seen more than her share of crime scenes and decomposed bodies. This seasoned professional is a fictional characterstar of popular mystery novels such as Dj Dead, Grave Secrets, and Cross Bonescreated by Kathy Reichs, a novelist and the realworld counterpart of the fictional Brennan.Emily Deschanel, who portrays Temperance Brennan, prepares for a scene on the set of the TV show Bones.View Large ImageDownload PowerPointThroughout most of her 30year career, Reichs has applied her knowledge of forensic anthropology to identifying bodies not only in North Carolina and in Quebec but also in New York City after 9/11 and in Rwanda and Guatemala. Now she writes internationally bestselling novels that not only entertain her millions of readers but also educate them about the field of anthropology.Reichs began writing her first novel in 1994; after becoming a full professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, she felt free to try something new. In her novels she has created a character whose professional life parallels her own. Each of my books, Reichs explained, springs from a case or something I have done. For example, in Deadly Decisions Brennan helps solve the murders of people killed by motorcycle gangs in Quebec, and in Death du Jour she helps the Catholic Church to verify the bones of a proposed saint and then stumbles onto cult killingsboth of which Reichs has done herself.Reichs not only draws on reallife cases for inspiration for her plots but also uses her expertise to enhance her stories with details that provide readers with an introduction to forensic anthropology. The real challenge in writing fiction, Reichs explained, is keeping the science accurate, but short, and also entertaining. To accomplish this, she includes detail not just for the sake of descriptive atmosphere but to further her story. For example, in Dj Dead Brennan explains to a police detective how she determined what kind of saw dismembered a body, detailing how she could use the details of the cut marks to determine a variety of characteristics of the saw that was used to make them. The similarity of the ways in which several victims bodies were dismembered and mutilated leads her to the conclusion that one serial killer was responsible for all of these crimes. In the same book Brennan uses bitemark analysis to determine that the marks left behind on a piece of cheese in the killers apartment do not match those of a suspect held in custody.The success of Reichss novels has led to the creation of an American TV show, Bones, based on the Brennan character. Although Reichs does not write scripts for the show, she is a producer and acts as a scientific adviser, reading each script to ensure scientific accuracy. As in the books, forensic details are incorporated into each story. In the pilot episode, a decomposed body is discovered in a pond in Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, D.C., and Brennan is called upon to help identify it. She determines that the victim is a woman (from the shape of the pelvis) approximately 1823 years old (from the epiphyseal fusion of the long bones) who probably enjoyed playing tennis (from the wear on the shoulder bones, indicating that the victim had bursitis). Later, with the aid of an entomologist colleague, Brennan determines that the victim has been dead for at least two summers and a winter on the basis of the larval stages of the various species of flies found on the corpse.Reichs's books are published in 29 languages, and during Fall 2005 and Winter 2006 Nielsen Media Research estimated that an average of 8.4 million viewers tuned in to Bones each week. By presenting science in an entertaining and realistic way, Reichs is not only educating people but also probably inspiring many undergraduates to enroll in introductory anthropology classes. Previous articleNext article DetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Current Anthropology Volume 47, Number 4August 2006 Sponsored by the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/506284 Views: 665Total views on this site Citations: 1Citations are reported from Crossref PDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Annie R. Specht Killer Corn and Capitalist Pigs: Forensic Noir and Television Portrayals of Modern Agricultural Technology, Culture, Agriculture, Food and Environment 35, no.22 (Dec 2013): 152–161.https://doi.org/10.1111/cuag.12018