ABSTRACT
Chapter 1 abstract: This chapter will provide background on the political debate over where to bury the American World War dead and demonstrate that the families of the dead understood and weighed the political questions being debated as they chose where to have the dead buried. Families read newspaper articles describing the views of men like General John Pershing and former President Theodore Roosevelt, who argued that the dead should be left in Europe to represent the efforts the United States had made during the war and to maintain a symbolic tie to Europe. Families realized that they were being asked to decide whether the dead would essentially continue to serve the nation symbolically by being buried in permanent overseas cemeteries far from home or be returned to families for burial far from the battlefield. As the debate dragged on, families began to argue that their own views should carry great weight as no one knew better than they did what should become of the dead. The force of their argument would persuade even most of those arguing in favor of leaving the dead overseas to concede that families of the dead should be allowed to decide for themselves where the dead belonged.
