How does society handle the return of a soldier from the strange realm of the battlefield back into the regular stream of American existence? What themes does that return embody? What reactions does it provoke? As with many such questions, these have been explored throughout the history of popular culture: film, literature, magazines, television, and even holidays have considered each and every war in its own time, and according to a constantly shifting set of terms. ^IComing Home^R traces the image of the veteran's homecoming in popular culture, linking the depiction of this ritual to the different forces-political, cultural, social, and intellectual-in place at the time. As a result of this focus, it provides a unique glimpse into phenomena that every culture, in its way, must face: the soldier's return home, his or her need to reengage in society, and society's reaction to that attempt.
How does society handle the return of a soldier from the strange realm of the battlefield back into the regular stream of American existence? What themes does that return embody? What reactions does it provoke? As with many such questions, these have been explored throughout the history of popular culture: film, literature, magazines, television, and even holidays have considered each and every war in its own time, and according to a constantly shifting set of terms. ^IComing Home^R traces the image of the veteran's homecoming in popular culture, linking the depiction of this ritual to the different forces-political, cultural, social, and intellectual-in place at the time. As a result of this focus, it provides a unique glimpse into phenomena that every culture, in its way, must face: the soldier's return home, his or her need to reengage in society, and society's reaction to that attempt.
After first discussing the roots of the cinematic return in the photographs of the Civil War era, author Robert Oliver goes on to consider such films as ^IThe Big Parade^R (the highest grossing American movie of the 1920s), ^IThe Best Years of Our Lives, The Manchurian Candidate, The Deer Hunter, Coming Home, Born on the Fourth of July, In Country, Forrest Gump^R, and ^IThree Kings^R. Other topics discussed include: the development of Armistice Day (now Veteran's Day); the creation of organizations such as the American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars; novels such as Michener's ^ITales of the South Pacific^R, and Wilson's ^IThe Man in the Grey Flannel Suit^R; television coverage of the return home from Vietnam; and magazine and newsreels from the twentieth century.
- ISBN10 027598351X
- ISBN13 9780275983512
- Publish Date 9 January 2006
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 15 June 2016
- Publish Country US
- Publisher ABC-CLIO
- Imprint Praeger Publishers Inc
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 225
- Language English