Series Editors
Matthew Christopher Hulbert, Hampden-Sydney College
Matthew E. Stanley, University of Arkansas
In twenty-first-century America, mass media is synonymous with mass memory. As a result, the ways in which Americans imagine (and selectively ignore) the past based on feature films, documentaries, television shows, streaming content, popular fiction, comics, art, music, and even video games have become interchangeable with “history.” How we remember the past collectively is fundamental to constructing national identities and the ever-changing definition of a “real” American. Nowhere are these connections between the past and everyday life more evident, or hotly contested, than in popular depictions of warfare.
This series from LSU Press explores how depictions of American military conflicts in popular culture wield immense social, cultural, political, and economic power in the relative present. The editors seek monographs and edited volumes—from both emerging and established scholars—rooted in a wide range of disciplines including history, literature, film studies, art history, anthropology, cultural studies, public history, media and communications, and military studies. Interdisciplinary approaches are encouraged, as is writing aimed at accessibility for nonacademic readers. Topics of interest include, but are certainly not limited to:
• different types of violence, including regular vs. irregular warfare
• reconciling concepts of the “Good War” and the “Greatest Generation” with prevalent antiwar/antimilitary attitudes (i.e., why some wars are lauded, some hated, and others erased)
• digital and drone warfare vs. traditionally waged conflicts
• issues surrounding veterans’ trauma and PTSD
• home-front experiences and anti-war movements in the United States
• depictions of “the enemy” on cultural, racial, and gendered terms
• generational methods of consuming war in mass culture and evolving notions of American democracy, individualism, and exceptionalism
• the evolution of technology in representing warfare, including the rise of video games
• representations of the roles of women and children in warfare
• the influence of pop culture (and propaganda) on foreign policy and relations
Please send proposals to acquisitions editor James Long: jlong12@lsu.edu
Editorial Advisory Board
Zara Anishanslin, University of Delaware
John Bodnar, Indiana University
Jonna K. Eagle, University of Hawaii at Manoa
Martin Francis, University of Sussex
Ari Kelman, University of California, Davis
Nina Silber, Boston University
Guy Westwell, Queen Mary University of London
