Amerikanisches Totengedenken: Privatisierung des Leides und Universalisierung der Toten

In this chapter in the edited volume "Gefallenengedenken im globalen Vergleich. Nationale Tradition, politische Legitimation und Individualisierung der Erinnerung" (Fallen memories in a global comparison. National tradition, political legitimation and individualization of memory) the author, Michael Geyer, explores American commemoration of the fallen soldiers in the twentieth century. He observes that the fallen soldiers are very present in American public culture and its commemortion of war, including war monuments, but argues that this does not mean that the individual citizens perceives  and recognizes the fallen and deal tiht them. For the grief and pain of the relatives of the fallen soldiers there  is no space in the public. Their suffering is "privatized."