W. H. Auden in an Age of Dark Oratory

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel Galvin
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
The United States ◽  
Poetic Language ◽  
World War ◽  
Bodily Experience ◽  
Strategic Bombing ◽  
Military Uniform

This chapter charts how Auden’s strategies for writing about war as a civilian changed during World War II, extending the previous chapter’s inquiry regarding the journalistic aspirations of his 1930s writing and his vision of the transformation of bodily experience into text. It contends that the poems of Another Time offer parables of wartime interrelation: models for imagining the relation between contemplation and action, civilian and soldier. Further, whereas The Double Man has been read as superannuated and excessively rhetorical, this chapter argues that it shrewdly showcases the resources of poetic language available to the noncombatant. A concluding section examines a surprising episode in 1945 when Auden donned a military uniform for the United States Strategic Bombing Survey and finally got the bird’s eye view of war he had imagined.

Thoughts on War

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Phillip S. Meilinger
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
The United States ◽  
Modern World ◽  
World War ◽  
New Paradigm ◽  
Intelligence Gathering ◽  
Special Operations ◽  
Strategic Bombing ◽  
Principles Of War

In these provocative essays, military historian Phillip Meilinger explores timeless issues. Beginning with an iconoclastic look at the ideas of Carl von Clausewitz, Meilinger sees an unfortunate influence due to an emphasis on bloody battle, combined with a Euro-centric worldview. Moreover, Clausewitz’s dictum that war is an extension of policy actually says very little to guide modern world leaders. Other essays examine the nature of war in the twenty-first century, principles of war, the meaning of decisive victory, the importance of second front operations, the influence of time in battle, and a look at the first major amphibious and joint campaign of World War II in Norway. He also notes the crucial role played by service culture, and his controversial look at the American military tradition reveals that the US military has played a major role in politics throughout our history. An essay on unity of command in the Pacific during World War II reveals interservice rivalry and conflicting strategic views. Strategic bombing in World War II depended on new analytical tools, such as intelligence gathering. The United States Strategic Bombing Survey examined the results of those bombing campaigns in depth. The United States now engages in wars of choice and requires an international mandate to intervene to restore peace or destroy a terrorist group. We must therefore limit risk and cost, especially to the civilian populace. This leads to a new paradigm emphasizing the use of airpower, special operations forces, intelligence gathering and dissemination systems, and indigenous ground forces.

High-Altitude Daylight Precision Bombing in World War II

2019 ◽  
pp. 195-224
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
High Altitude ◽  
The United States ◽  
World War ◽  
Air Power ◽  
Air War ◽  
Strategic Bombing ◽  
Harsh Reality

This concluding chapter examines US air war planning in World War II and evaluates overall American strategic bombing effectiveness: how HADPB theory held up to the reality of combat. After sketching out the early air war in Europe leading up to the entry of the United States, the chapter considers several aspects of the role American strategic bombing played during World War II, including the Combined Bomber Offensive (CBO), and evaluates how well the underlying assumptions of HADPB withstood the harsh reality of war. Finally, the chapter assesses how air power contributed overall to the Allied victory in Europe and analyzes the USAAF experience with HADPB against Japan.

Bones of Contention: China’s World War II Military Graves in India, Burma, and Papua New Guinea

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 52-99 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linh D. Vu
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Papua New Guinea ◽  
New Guinea ◽  
The United States ◽  
World War ◽  
Archival Documents ◽  
Chinese State ◽  
International Status

Abstract Exploring the construction and maintenance of Nationalist Chinese soldiers’ graves overseas, this article sheds light on post-World War II commemorative politics. After having fought for the Allies against Japanese aggression in the China-Burma-India Theater, the Chinese expeditionary troops sporadically received posthumous care from Chinese veterans and diaspora groups. In the Southeast Asia Theater, the Chinese soldiers imprisoned in the Japanese-run camps in Rabaul were denied burial in the Allied war cemetery and recognition as military heroes. Analyzing archival documents from China, Taiwan, Britain, Australia, and the United States, I demonstrate how the afterlife of Chinese servicemen under foreign sovereignties mattered in the making of the modern Chinese state and its international status.

Do We Need a Postmodern Anthropology for Mission in a Postcolonial World?

2011 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 151-169 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael A. Rynkiewich
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
United States ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
Cultural Anthropology ◽  
The United States ◽  
Symbiotic Relationship ◽  
World War ◽  
Fields Of Study ◽  
The Social ◽  
Cross Fertilization

Abstract There was a time when mission studies benefitted from a symbiotic relationship with the social sciences. However, it appears that relationship has stagnated and now is waning. The argument is made here, in the case of cultural anthropology both in Europe and the United States, that a once mutually beneficial though sometimes strained relationship has suffered a parting of the ways in recent decades. First, the article reviews the relationships between missionaries and anthropologists before World War II when it was possible to be a ‘missionary anthropologist’ with a foot in both disciplines. In that period, the conversation went two ways with missionary anthropologists making important contributions to anthropology. Then, the article reviews some aspects of the development of the two disciplines after World War II when increasing professionalism in both disciplines and a postmodern turn in anthropology took the disciplines in different directions. Finally, the article asks whether or not the conversation, and thus the cross-fertilization, can be restarted, especially since the youngest generation of anthropologists has recognized the reality of local Christianities in their fields of study.

The German Problem: 1945–1950

1968 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 279-300 ◽  
Author(s):  
Klaus Epstein
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
Prior Knowledge ◽  
Good Deal ◽  
The United States ◽  
Political Orientation ◽  
World War ◽  
Narrative History ◽  
German Question ◽  
The Future

Schwarz's study Vom Reich zur Bundesrepublik is, in the opinion of this reviewer, the single most important book on the occupation studyperiod in Germany after World War II that has yet appeared. It is not an ordinary narrative history—indeed, it presupposes a good deal of prior knowledge—but is rather a topical analysis of the following problems: the various possible solutions to the German question in the years after 1945; the policies toward Germany of the four victorious powers—Russia, France, Britain, and the United States; the development of German attitudes on the future political orientation of one or two Germanies; and finally, the factors that led to the voluntary acceptance of Western integration by most West Germans even though this integration meant the partition of Germany.

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