Monumental Change: The Shifting Politics of Obligation at the Tomb of the Unknowns

Abstract:The Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery has long served as a site of instruction about national sacrifice, but its lessons in mourning war's costs and honoring its combatants have changed with time and shifting political currents, as reflected in the reordered space, the sentinels' altered rituals and the public's increasingly disciplined engagement with the site. Tracing these changes, this article argues that the gradual distancing of the monument and its sentinels from the visiting public mirrors the sharpening sense of civilian-military division within American society itself, revealing the exclusionary politics of obligation that help shape contemporary political discourse about war and its costs.