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In/visible War

The Culture of War in Twenty-first-Century America
  • Edited by: and
  • With contributions by: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , and
  • Photographs by: and
Language: English
Published/Copyright: 2017

About this book

In/Visible War addresses a paradox of twenty-first century American warfare. The contemporary visual American experience of war is ubiquitous, and yet war is simultaneously invisible or absent; we lack a lived sense that “America” is at war. This paradox of in/visibility concerns the gap between the experiences of war zones and the visual, mediated experience of war in public, popular culture, which absents and renders invisible the former. Large portions of the domestic public experience war only at a distance. For these citizens, war seems abstract, or may even seem to have disappeared altogether due to a relative absence of visual images of casualties. Perhaps even more significantly, wars can be fought without sacrifice by the vast majority of Americans.
 
Yet, the normalization of twenty-first century war also renders it highly visible. War is made visible through popular, commercial, mediated culture. The spectacle of war occupies the contemporary public sphere in the forms of celebrations at athletic events and in films, video games, and other media, coming together as MIME, the Military-Industrial-Media-Entertainment Network.  
 

Author / Editor information

JON SIMONS is Reader in Media at Leeds Trinity University, United Kingdom. He is the author or editor of numerous books including Images: A Reader.
 
JOHN LOUIS LUCAITES is the associate dean for arts and humanities in the College of Arts and Sciences and provost professor of rhetoric in the department of English at Indiana University. His most recent work includes No Caption Needed: Photojournalism, Public Culture, and Liberal Democracy.
 

Reviews

"Provocative."
— H-Net

"In/Visible War: the Culture of War in Twenty-First-Century America is an amazing read about images of war and also how we really do not have a clue as to what these men and women in uniform go through on a day-to-day basis. A picture can make us see, but we can never know the 'truth.'"

— Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly

"Can a war be hidden in plain sight? Every day. This thoughtful volume explores how contemporary media are normalizing war, and why the paradoxes of war’s invisibility challenge civic spectatorship."
— Robert Hariman, co-author of No Caption Needed: Iconic Photographs, Public Culture, and Liberal Democracy

"In/Visible War is a timely and stimulating collection that offers a fresh and provocative insight into the impact of the 'global war on terror' on American culture and politics."
 
 
— John Bodnar, author of The Good War in American Memory

Topics

  • Publicly Available

    Frontmatter

    i
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    Contents

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    Introduction: The Paradox of War’s In/visibility

    1
    John Louis Lucaites and Jon Simons
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  • Part I: Seeing War
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    1. How Photojournalism Has Framed the War in Afghanistan

    27
    David Campbell
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    2. Returning Soldiers and the In/visibility of Combat Trauma

    48
    Christopher J. Gilbert and John Louis Lucaites
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    3. (Re)fashioning PTSD’s Warrior Project

    69
    Jeremy G. Gordon
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    4. Unremarkable Suffering: Banality, Spectatorship, and War’s In/visibilities

    89
    Rebecca A. Adelman and Wendy Kozol
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  • Transition
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    “War Is Fun,” a Photo-Essay

    111
    Nina Berman
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    5. Laying bin Laden to Rest: A Case Study of Terrorism and the Politics of Visibility

    125
    Jody Lyneé Madeira
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  • Part II: Not Seeing War
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    6. Digital War and the Public Mind: Call of Duty Reloaded, Decoded

    143
    Roger Stahl
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    7. A Cinema of Consolation: Post-9/ 11 Super-Invasion Fantasy

    159
    De Witt Douglas Kilgore
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    8. Differential Configurations: In/visibility Through the Lens of Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker (2008)

    172
    Claudia Breger
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    9. The Canine-Rescue Narrative, Civilian Casualties, and the Long Gulf War

    193
    Purnima Bose
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  • Part III: Theorizing the In/visibility of War
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    10. The In/visibility of Liberal Peace: Perpetual Peace and Enduring Freedom

    213
    Jon Simons
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    11. Why War? Derrida, Baudrillard, and the Absolute Televisual Image

    229
    Diane Rubenstein
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    12. War in the Twenty-First Century: Visible, Invisible, or Superpositional?

    249
    James Der Derian
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    Acknowledgments

    265
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    Notes on Contributors

    267
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    Photo Credits

    271
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    Index

    273
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Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
October 21, 2019
eBook ISBN:
9780813585406
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
View content
https://doi.org/10.36019/9780813585406
eBook ISBN: 9780813585406
Keywords for this book
america; american; war; warfare; military presence; war zone; war culture; violence; invisible; war overseas; overseas; global war; war on terror; politics; war politics; international affairs; war and peace studies; communication; media studies; cultural studies; gender studies; American Studies; art history; history; political science; sociology; anthropology; paradox; twenty-first century; American warfare; mediated experience; addressing concerns; shedding new light; oblivious; absent minded Americans; distanced society; sacrifice; popular culture; commercial culture; No Caption Needed: Photojournalism; Public Culture; Liberal Democracy.; Perspective; seeing war; not seeing; truth blindness; invisible war; visible war; rescue; denial; no sacrifice; mental health; hiding away
Audience(s) for this book
For a non-specialist adult audience
Downloaded on 15.4.2026 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.36019/9780813585406/html
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