Shiny happy warfare? New York victory parades and the (IN)visibility of violence

Abstract

For almost 150 years New York City has been America’s self-declared national parade ground. Traditionally, personalities from politics, sports, and of social importance have enjoyed the city’s distinct parade style of ticker-tape throwing. The list of celebrities reaches from President Theodore Roosevelt to aviator Charles Lindbergh and the moonconquering crew of Apollo 11. Although most recently parade activity has somewhat subsided, the tradition is still alive. The latest addition to this illustrious list were the Super Bowl winners of the New York Giants, who in 2008 had the honor of “riding” through the Canyon of Heroes, as the Manhattan’s Broadway and Fifth Avenue parade area is also called. However, some of the biggest and most elaborate celebrations to ever take place have been military victory parades-especially those staged after the First and Second World Wars. New York was a prime location of return from the war, and after the First World War the city was a major port for soldiers coming back from Europe to disembark, and thousands of men had themselves enlisted in the city to fight in Europe. The task of welcoming home some 1.3 million soldiers required a professional organization of celebrations. The series of ad hoc committees that had earlier taken up the task of organizing these events was then replaced by a permanent mayoral agency.