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Mothers of Heroes, Mothers of Martyrs
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Mothers of Heroes, Mothers of Martyrs

World War I and the Politics of Grief
By Suzanne Evans
History, History: Women's, History: Military, Women's And Gender Studies
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9780773577978

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An exploration of the powerful role of the mourning mother in war and how maternal grief has been used for political gain.


Maternal love is considered the most unconditional form of love, yet mothers have been prepared to sacrifice their children, or to see them sacrificed, for a "noble" cause. Mothers of Heroes, Mothers of Martyrs shows that, across cultures and historical eras, in times of great stress societies will channel all their resources, even maternal love and grief, toward a common cause.

Suzanne Evans finds commonalities between the many images of war mothers - the Canadian Silver Cross mother, the ancient Jewish Maccabean mother of seven martyred sons, the mother of a Palestinian suicide bomber. She compares the lore about mothers of martyrs in the Judeo-Christian, Muslim, and Sikh traditions with stories of World War I Canadian mothers who were depicted in the media as having sacrificed their sons for the sake of civilization, justice, freedom, and God. After the war these mothers were honoured with the Silver Cross medal. Evans argues that, like the mothers of past martyrs, the image of the war-supportive mother in Canada had a powerful influence over public opinion and drew supporters to the cause.

"I remember as a young mother looking at a picture of a Palestinian woman who had just lost her child to martyrdom but was smiling with a serene pride. This was the first time I had come across the phrases "mother of martyr" or "Intifada smile."
How could a woman show joy over the death of her child?

I could not get the question out of my mind. I later discovered that stories of women who publicly rejoice on the death of a child in support of their community have been told for centuries in the Jewish, Christian, Islamic, and Sikh traditions. There was a depth and complexity to the image of a mother of a martyr that required much more than a passing glance to be understood." From Mothers of Heroes, Mothers of Martyrs
Details

224 Pages, 6 x 9

ISBN 9780773531888

February 2007

Formats: Cloth, eBook

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Suzanne Evans is a writer in Ottawa. She holds a PhD in religious studies from the University of Ottawa.

Illustrations vii
Preface ix
Acknowledgments xi

INTRODUCTION
Heroes and Martyrs 3

ONE
The Seeds of the Martyrs: Stories of Jewish, Christian, Islamic, and Sikh Mothers of Martyrs 14

TWO
The Language of Sacrifice: The Voice of Preachers and Artists in World War I 43

THREE
“You Are All I Have to Give”: War Mothers’ Stories, Rewards, and the Other Face of Loss 77

FOUR
Monuments and Memories: The Mother’s Role in the Sad Work of Commemoration 113

FIVE
Governance of the Gardens of the Dead: War Graves, the Ancient Greeks, and the Need to Remember and to Forget 137

CONCLUSION
Mothers and Memories 158
Notes 165
Bibliography 191
Index 209
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