War Commemoration

Available solely from Apple iTunes:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/king-david-and-his-reign-revisited/id741571300?mt=11

Of all the Bible’s personalities, David is the most profoundly human. Courageous, cunning, and complex, he lives life to the hilt. Whatever he does, he does with all his might, exuding both vitality and vulnerability.

But what do we know about the historical David? Why didn't the biblical authors present a more flattering image of him? Why are their stories of his life filled with so many confusing details (about people, places, communities, and so on)? And why do these stories stand at the center of the Bible?

In this groundbreaking study, the award-winning biblical scholar Jacob L. Wright answers these fundamental questions. He shows how the earliest biblical sources knew David as a warlord whose greatest feat is the creation of the kingdom of Judah. Only later did David become known as the one who slew Goliath, won the love of Jonathan and Michal, took the throne of Saul,  and ruled Israel.

This beautifully designed enhanced book reveals the political concerns that prompted later generations to drastically transform David’s identity. As the first work of its kind, King David and His Reign Revisited features a dazzling array of paintings, photographs, and multimedia. Drawing on his research on war commemoration, Wright introduces an exciting new approach to the interpretation of biblical literature.


***Redaction history of much of the Book of Samuel, with extensive chapter on Chronicles. Appealing to findings from NEH-funding research project on "war commemoration," it presents new model of the formation of biblical literature and Israel's ethnogenesis.  Argues that the David narrative was originally fully separate from the Saul narrative, and that the David narrative was solely focused on the Kingdom of Judah (lacking any reference to Israel).***

This special issue addresses the possible connections and mutual benefits of examining together two analytic concepts – memory and periphery. These concepts receive much attention in various scholarly discussions, yet they have done so rather independently from each other. The potential applications and utilities of combining memory and periphery and the epistemic insights they provide for various disciplins are presented in the different contributions to this issue.

As a prelude to a forthcoming article (“Deborah’s War Memorial”, ZAW 123), this study examines the influential interpretation of F. M. Cross and B. Halpern, according to which Jdg 5:15b-17 describes participation in battle. In identifying problems with this interpretation, I point to suggestive comparative evidence for war commemoration in the Bible and the Aegean world, as well as to more recent studies of war commemoration.

The Great War is arguably one of the most significant conflicts in recent history. In this centenary year of the beginning of the First World War, as the grand narratives about the conflict come under renewed scrutiny and debate this conference focuses on the alternative forms of war heritagisation and commemoration emerging globally. In exploring other voices disregarded by the mainstream grand narratives of European geopolitics, we aim to explore the weight of how we are inheriting 1914. With over 50 million pounds being invested in the UK in local communities' projects to re-establish claims on the memory of 1914 we are interested in exploring perspectives from the periphery (ie local, indigenous, former colonies and other previously overlooked regions). This 15th Cambridge Heritage Seminar seeks to bring together researchers and practitioners from a wide array of disciplines and communities of practice to explore the range of narratives being constructed.

Paper proposals are due by 15 February to 15heritageseminar@gmail.com. They should clearly outline the questions that will be addressed and the empirical evidence or case study that will be drawn on. The proposals should not exceed 400 words and should be accompanied by a short (150 word) biographical note.

The article is devoted to an insufficiently explored aspect of the history of World War I - the transportation (repatriation) of Russian combatants’ bodies. The author briefly reviews the tradition of  the transportation of dead bodies in a historical and cultural retrospective. Special attention is paid to the analysis of the sources on this issue which are appended as a supplement to the article.

This article examines how and to what extent recent wars affect war commemoration. We do this through an analysis of the establishment of a Veterans Day in Norway, instituted on May 8, the traditional Liberation Day in memory of World War 2. We document how this merger has transformed May 8 from a low-key war commemoration to a celebration of the Armed Forces. Through our study, we emphasize how authorities attempt to form new mnemonic practices to give meaning to recent wars. These practices were informed by transnational events, but also constrained by deeply embedded national genres of commemoration. In Norway, the Liberation and Veterans Day has become a secluded event, attended by political and military leaders, but largely ignored by the public. We argue that commemorative practices that fail to resonate with shared experiences in society and are at odds with national identities will have limited appeal and support.

This article addresses a peculiar historical moment in contemporary Denmark, a nation coming to grips with its increased involvement in the ‘coalition’ wars of recent decades, especially in Afghanistan. It explores how and why, in a Scandinavian society previously conceived as a bastion of tolerance, humanitarianism and pacifism, a new preoccupation with and support for war participation – often referred to as Danish ‘activism’ – seems to be on the rise. I analyse public commemoration settings, focusing especially on events connected to the 150th anniversary of the War of 1864 in which Denmark was defeated by Prussia and Austria. This major anniversary in 2014 coincided with the withdrawal of Danish combat troops from Afghanistan. Utilizing theories of time and temporality, I explore how the two conflicts – both ‘remote’ from the Danish public; one in time, the other in space – came symbiotically to inform the interpretations of each other.