We Are What We Remember: The American Past Through CommemorationLaura Mattoon D’Amore, Jeffrey Meriwether Commemorative practices are revised and rebuilt based on the spirit of the time in which they are re/created. Historians sometimes imagine that commemoration captures history, but actually commemoration creates new narratives about history that allow people to interact with the past in a way that they find meaningful. As our social values change (race, gender, religion, sexuality, class), our commemorations do, too. We Are What We Remember: The American Past Through Commemoration, analyzes current trends in the study of historical memory that are particularly relevant to our own present – our biases, our politics, our contextual moment – and strive to name forgotten, overlooked, and denied pasts in traditional histories. Race, gender, and sexuality, for example, raise questions about our most treasured myths: where were the slaves at Jamestowne? How do women or lesbians protect and preserve their own histories, when no one else wants to write them? Our current social climate allows us to question authority, and especially the authoritative definitions of nation, patriotism, and heroism, and belonging. How do we “un-commemorate” things that were “mis-commemorated” in the past? How do we repair the damage done by past commemorations? The chapters in this book, contributed by eighteen emerging and established scholars, examine these modern questions that entirely reimagine the landscape of commemoration as it has been practiced, and studied, before. |
What people are saying - Write a review
User Review - Flag as inappropriate
Very Helpful!
Other editions - View all
We are what We Remember: The American Past Through Commemoration Jeffrey Lee Meriwether,Laura Mattoon D'Amore No preview available - 2012 |
We Are What We Remember: The American Past Through Commemoration Jeffrey Lee Meriwether,Laura Mattoon Damore No preview available - 2013 |
Common terms and phrases
African American alternate history anniversary Apollo Archives army astronauts August Avard Fairbanks battle battlefield Bill Monroe blackface Bluegrass Bluegrass Music Boston British Cambridge celebration century Challenger City Civil collective memory Colonial commemoration Confederate countermonument created cultural Dakota England event February feminist Fifth of November frontier gender Georgia heritage Historic Jamestowne honor Ibid identity Indian interpretation Journal July Kake Walk Korean War Veterans landscape Last accessed June Lesbian Lesbian Herstory Archives Mary’s Massachusetts military mission Monroe Monroe’s monuments Mormon movement museum narratives National Cemetery National Park Service Old Colony Memorial participants past Pilgrim Pioneer Mother Plimoth Plantation Plot Against America Plymouth political public memory race racial reenactment reenactors regiment remember role Rosine Roth’s sacred Sherman’s March shuttle slavery social soldiers Southern space story Tercentenary town traditional United University Press Vermont Cynic visitors Wampanoag Washington women Women’s History Women’s Rights York