Beyond the Dead Horizon: Studies in Modern Conflict Archaeology - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1842174711 ISBN 13: 9781842174715

Publisher: Oxbow Books, 2012

Synopsis

The new interdisciplinary study of modern conflict archaeology has developed rapidly over the last decade. Its anthropological approach to modern conflicts, their material culture and their legacies has freed such investigations from the straitjacket of traditional 'battlefield archaeology'. It offers powerful new methodologies and theoretical insights into the nature and experience of industrialised war, whether between nation states or as civil conflict, by individuals as well as groups and by women and children, as well as men of fighting age. The complexities of studying wars within living memory demand a new response - a sensitised, cross-disciplinary approach which draws on many other kinds of academic study but which does not privilege any particular discipline. It is the most democratic kind of archaeology - one which takes a bottom-up approach - in order to understand the web of emotional, military, political, economic and cultural experiences and legacies of conflict. These 18 papers offer a coherent demonstration of what modern conflict archaeology is and what it is capable of and offers an intellectual home for those not interested in traditional 'war studies' or military history, but who respond to the idea of a multidisciplinary approach to all modern conflict.

Table of Contents

Foreword (Nicholas J. Saunders)
Introduction: Engaging the materialities of 20th and 21st century conflict (Nicholas J. Saunders)

Part 1: Objects in Conflict
1. ‘Dead Man’s Penny’: A Biography of the First World War Bronze Memorial Plaque (Julie Dunne)
2. The Poppy and the Harp: Contested meanings at ‘The Oratory’, Dun Laoghaire, Ireland (Niamh Keating)
3. The Bare Bones: Body Parts, Bones, and Conflict Behaviour (Susannah Callow)
4. The Diary of an American Doughboy: Interpreting a textual artifact of the First World War (Margaret N. Bagwell)
5. Picturing War: An intimate memorial to a lost soldier of the First World War (Matthew Leonard)
6. The Battlefield in

About this title

About the Author:

Nicholas J. Saunders was educated at the universities of Sheffield, Cambridge, and Southampton. He has held teaching and research positions at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, the University of the West Indies, Dumbarton Oaks, Washington D.C., and at University College London, where he was Reader in Material Culture and undertook a major British Academy sponsored investigation into the material culture anthropology of the First World War. As of 2014 Saunders is Professor in the Department of Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of Bristol,

Review:

'The book would be a useful aid to those thinking of studying modern conflict archaeology or to anybody interested in the subject who intends to study the subject at a detailed level.' (Mark Khan The History Herald)

This book will be of interest to those wishing to know more about the new discipline of conflict archaeology, and to students of 20th century warfare wishing to read about some of the more unusual aspects of the century's conflicts. (Bernard Lowry Casemate - Fortress Study Group Magazine, No. 99 (Jan 2014))

About this edition

• Publisher: Oxbow Books
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 1842174711
• ISBN 13: 9781842174715
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 240
• Editor: Saunders Nicholas J.