Comparative Memories: War Defeat and Historical Memory Formation in the Post-Civil War American South and Post-World War II Germany

Defeat in war, and the humiliation that sometimes follows, creates memories of war and the defeated society that are often more myth than reality. And nowhere is this more apparent than in the American South following the American Civil War and Germany following World War II. In both cases, romanticization, memorialization, and omission were common responses to dealing with defeat while occupied by outside forces. This thesis follows those memories, their change over time, and critically analyzes their ramifications through a comparative lens. Today, the myths of the Lost Cause and the Stunde Null are still embedded within the culture of both societies. And by analyzing them comparatively, historical memory appears as a human function—not just a national one.