Motherhood and War International Perspectives

by Cooper, Dana; Phelan, Claire

• ISBN13: 9781137437952
• ISBN10: 1137437952
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2014-07-10
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

Traditional histories of war have focused overwhelmingly on masculine narratives of military action, diplomacy, and political maneuvering, leaving the 'home front' and private, domestic life relatively unstudied. This volume expands our understanding of wartime experiences by looking at the complex relationships between mothers and children and the varied roles both have assumed during periods of armed conflict. In contexts ranging from the Sandinista uprising and contemporary Middle Eastern conflicts to World War II-era Japan, each chapter explores how women have coped during times of great uncertainty, navigating social boundaries, balancing national and familial commitments, and enduring the injury or even death of their children.

Author Biography

Dana Cooper is Associate Professor of History at Stephen F. Austin State University, USA. Her most recent works include an edited volume, Transatlantic Relations and Modern Diplomacy: An Interdisciplinary Examination (2013) and Informal Ambassadors: American Women, Transatlantic Marriages, and Anglo-American Relations, 1865-1945 (2014).

Claire Phelan is an Assistant Professor of History at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor, USA. She has received a number of awards including a Nokia Research Award in Women's History, a Cuffee Memorial Fellowship, a Greenwich Maritime Museum Research Fellowship, and a Walsh Foundation Fellowship.

Table of Contents

Prologue: Mother
Amitabh Vikram Dwivedi
1. Introduction: The Shenandoah Doctrine: Sons, Soldiers, and Service to the Nation
Dana Cooper
2. Mothers, Warfare, and Captivity in the Eastern Woodlands of North America, 1607-1763
John Navin
3. Sailing Sons: The Personal Consequences of Impressment
Claire Phelan
4. Las Madres Guerreras: Testimonial Writing on Militant Motherhood in Latin America
Tracey Crowe Morey and Cristina Santos
5. The Women's Resistence Movement in Argentina: Las Madres de Plaza de Mayo
Elena Shabliy
6. Japanese Mothers and Rural Settlement in Wartime Manchukuo: Gendered Reflections of Labor and Productivity in Manshû Gurafu [Manchuria Graph], 1936-1943
Annika Culver
7. Dear Okasan…: An Analysis of Farewell Letters from Kamikaze Pilots to their Mothers
Salvador Jimenez Murguia and Benjamin A. Peters
8. Social Trauma and Motherhood in Postwar Spain
Lorraine Ryan
9. Barbara Hepworth and War: Themes of Motherhood and Sacrifice in Hepworth's Madonna And Child, St. Ives Parish Church
Lyrica Taylor
10. War [De]Legitimizers: Israeli Military Mothers
Udi Lebel
11. Reproducing a Culture of Martyrdom: The Role of the Palestinian Mother in Discourse Construction, Transmission and Legitimization
Michael Loadenthal
12. Motherhood as a Space of Political Activism: Iraqi Mothers and the Religious Narrative of Karbala
Fatin Shabbar
13. Motherhood and Somali 'Civil' War: The Experiences of Anguish and Opportunities
Mohamed Haji Ingiriis
14. Conclusion: Grieving U.S. Mothers And The Political Representations Of Protest During The Iraq War And Beyond
Francis Shor