Battlefield Tourism: Pilgrimage and the Commemoration of the Great War in Britain, Australia and Canada, 1919-1939

Description

In the aftermath of the Great War, a wave of tourists and pilgrims visited the battlefields, cemeteries and memorials of the war. The cultural history of this 'battlefield tourism' is chronicled in this absorbing and original book, which shows how the phenomenon served to construct memory in Britain, as well as in Australia and Canada. The author demonstrates that high and low culture, tradition and modernism, the sacred and the profane were often inter-related, rather than polar opposites. The various responses to the actual and imagined landscapes of battlefields are discussed, as well as bereavement and how this was shaped by gender, religion and the military experience. Individual memory and experience combined with nationalism and 'imperial' identity as powerful forces informing the pilgrim experience. But this book not only analyzes travel to battlefields, which unsurprisingly paralleled the growth of the modern tourist industry; it also looks closely at the transformation of national war memorials into pilgrimage sites, and shows how responses both to battlefields and memorials, which continue to serve as potent symbols, evolved in the years after the Great War.

David William Lloyd was formerly of Clare Hall, University of Cambridge, UK.

'This book makes a valuable contribution to the literature on the meaning and politics of commemorative processes after the First World War ... "Battlefield Tourism" is a welcome addition to the important "Legacy of the Great War" series under the general editorship of Jay Winter.' History 'Battlefield Tourism is an important contribution to our understanding of the cultural meanings of the war.' English Historical Review 'Lloyd's scholarship is meticulous; he synthesizes information about forms of travel, tourism, and pilgrimage from diverse sources.' Annals of Tourism 'His work deserves to be admired for his careful and thorough style in which he successfully combines war and politics, private and public ceremonies, and the analysis of memory with tourism. His discussion of the war-related pilgrimage is especially useful and provocative.' Annals of Tourism Lloyd's is a fine book and an excellent addition to our understanding of the aftermath of the Great War.' Canadian Military History Book Review Supplement 'David W Lloyd's study of pilgrimages to the battlefields, cemetaries, and memorials of the Great War is an ambitious and immensely rewarding project. It is a welcome addition to a growing literature on grief, memory, and commemoration.' The International History Review 'In a fine addition to Berg's series "The Legacy of the Great War", David Lloyd takes another step in the right direction by interpreting the pilgrimage movement as a complex mixture of high and low culture, the sacred and the profane, and tradition and modernism.' Social History