ABSTRACT
Wars linger long after the cessation of formal hostilities. From economic dislocation, or the trauma inflicted on civilians and combatants, to national debates on course and conduct of conflicts, and hero worship of martial predecessors, the presence of the military past is often a palpable reality. People and collectives draw on the past to shape identity. War, as a traumatic event, often serves as a defining feature in personal and national remembrance. Individuals and groups literally re-member the past to make sense of the present and anticipate the future. The past, then, is of both individual and collective concern. Historians studying group efforts to solidify common understandings of the past have wrapped these activities into concepts such as collective memory and memorialization. The implications are that the past is malleable rather than constant, that narrative choices reveal perspectives held by storytellers, and groups struggling for political or social power often employ renderings of the past to validate claims for support.
