Resumen de Planning Memory: Living Memorials in the United States during World War II
During World War II a debate broke out in the United States over what form postwar memorials should take. One group advocated traditional memorials, such as statues, obelisks, and triumphal arches, and the other supported what were called "living memorials," useful projects such as civic improvements. This essay explores the meaning of this debate in a broad cultural context, interpreting a number of key proposals and texts in order to argue that living memorials profoundly complicated American expectations of memorialization and practices of commemoration, a confusion evident in the recent controversy over the National Memorial to World War II in Washington, D.C.
