Product Description

Over the past seventy years, the Allied invasion of Northwestern France in June 1944 has come to stand as something more than a major battle in an increasingly distant war. The assault itself formed a vital component of Allied victory in the Second World War. D-Day, as the initial landing is traditionally termed, has developed into a sign and symbol; as a word it carries with it a series of ideas and associations that have come to symbolize different things to different people and nations. As such, the commemorative activities linked to the battle offer a window for viewing the various belligerents in their postwar years. From high statesmen down to everyday individuals, people have spent the post-war period interpreting and drawing upon D-Day for a variety of reasons. As with all instances of collective memory, there is a politics at play, for the past serves to help make sense of the ever-changing present.