by
Jonathan Harwell
[Files are available in both PDF and HTML formats. The PDF format is recommended, as it is more readable and contains the photographs referred to in the text.]
Table of Contents
Introduction <or as a .doc>
Chapter
1 Death, Grieving, and Community: British Commemoration after the War
<or in HTML>
Chapter 2 The
Myth of Youth: Langemarck, Weimar, and the Wandervögel <or
in HTML>
Chapter 3 The
Aftermath of the Menin Gate: Use, Politicization, and Memory, 1928-1940
<or in HTML>
Chapter 4
Evening in Germany: National Socialism and the Myth of Langemarck
<or in HTML>
Conclusion <or as a .doc>
Bibliography
<or as a .doc>
Illustrations referred to in the text
1 Menin Gate
2 The cemetery at Langemarck
3 List of names inside the Menin Gate
4 Menin Gate with town center and cloth hall in background
5 Will Longstaff, The Menin Gate at Midnight
6 Langemarck cemetery seen through entrance
7 Cover illustration showing singing youth in battle
8 The Last Post ceremony at the Menin Gate
9 Hitler at Langemarck cemetery
Acknowledgements
The first and most obvious debt is to Chris Waters, my advisor. His help was invaluable in every part of my work, from the details of the writing to the broader ideas with which I struggled. If my work is free from split infinitives, the credit is his; if my work addresses the complex issues of collective memory with any sophistication or insight, the credit is also his. He took his task of advising very seriously, spending countless hours reading, and rereading, my drafts, complimenting me on what I did well even as he urged me to do other things better.
At the heart of any successful college experience are friendships, and I have been blessed with sympathetic and generous friends, many of whom have tolerated me for three or fours years, no mean accomplishment. Zehra Abid has given my life a Pakistani spice that is rarely encountered by those of us from Tennessee; I thank her for her kindness, her consideration, and her patience. Scott Kaplan has shared a number of memorable experiences with me, from being mistaken for car thieves in Albany to narrowly missing a championship as youth basketball coaches. Aysha Haider and Kate Dreher have been loyal friends, meeting my ill-timed wit with forbearance, good-humor, and almost never uncontrollable rage. Finally, I thank Aubrey Linen, without whom I undoubtedly would have skied less, played basketball less, and perhaps finished this thesis much earlier.
I thank the staff of the Williams College Library, especially those in the interlibrary loan department, for their help in tracking down a number of obscure books and newspapers. The history department has been uniformly helpful, from the Honors Colloquium directed by Pat Tracy to the numerous professors who have offered useful suggestions to the funding of my research trip to Belgium last summer.
P.G. Wodehouse once proposed to dedicate a book "To the critics these pearls"; I would prefer, however, to dedicate this work to the members of my family; their love has always been a boundless and entirely undeserved blessing.
J. H.
A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment
of the requirements for the
Degree of Bachelor of Arts with Honors
in History
WILLIAMS COLLEGE
Williamstown, Massachusetts
April 19, 1999
Return to homepage.