Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Modern Mourning, and the Reinvention of the Mystical Body

At the end of the First World War, countries across Europe participated in an unprecedented ritual in which a single, anonymous body was buried to symbolize the overwhelming trauma of the battlefields. The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier explores the creation and reception of this symbolic national burial as an emblem for modern mourning.

Bringing together literature, newspaper accounts, wartime corres...