"Deep in the core there is something not right in the way we commemorate"

[TRANSLATED BY: THIJS DE VEEN] During the Bachelor and Master American Studies at the University of Groningen, Sebastiaan Vonk specialized in how wars and other events are commemorated. That resulted in the (English) graduation thesis “War is Hell, but Damned Exciting”. Based on “battlefield tourism” the thesis asks whether the way history is dealt with can indeed prevent the repetition of history. The thesis was nominated for the Theodore Roosevelt American History Award and in the meantime has been published. We asked Sebastiaan a number of questions through e-mail about his thesis.

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