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Thinking Allowed: 09/06/2010

09/06/2010

BBC Radio 4 - Thinking Allowed, 09/06/2010

The changing way we commemorate the dead: a study of the war in Afghanistan.

The way in which we commemorate our war dead has changed dramatically. Laurie Taylor discusses a new study which explores the way we memorialise the casualties of the Afghan War.

Since 2006 over 200 British soldiers have been killed in Helmand, Afghanistan. Laurie Taylor discusses a new study which explores the way in which these dead solders have been commemorated in Britain. We have become familiar with the painful sight of mourners lining the main street of Wootton Bassett, as hearses carry coffins away from RAF Lyneham. In public acts of remembrance today soldiers are remembered as fathers, husbands, wives, sons and daughters. This modern way of personalising and even domesticating soldiers is in stark contrast to the twentieth century rituals which mourn the sacrifice of anonymous individual soldiers who have died for the nation. What lies behind this change of attitude and what impact is the new public consciousness likely to have on how and when we wage war? Laurie talks to Anthony King from Exeter University, author of 'The Afghan War and 'postmodern' memory: commemoration and the Dead of Helmand'.

Producer: Charlie Taylor.

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