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. |
Common terms and phrases
accessed African American alternate August battle battlefield became Bluegrass Boston British called celebration Cemetery century Challenger City Civil collective Colonial commemoration Confederate created cultural Dakota early efforts England event experience fact Fairbanks February Figure honor identity important included Indian Institute interpretation Jamestown John Journal July Kake Walk land Last accessed Lesbian living March Massachusetts meaning memory military Minnesota Minstrel Show Monroe monuments Mormon movement museum narratives National notes November organizations original Park participants past performance Pilgrim pioneer Plantation Plimoth Plymouth political present race reenactment reenactors reflected regiment remains remember represented Rights role served Service Sherman’s slavery social Society soldiers Southern space story Studies town traditional United University Press Vermont Veterans visitors Washington women York
Bibliographic information
| Title | We Are What We Remember: The American Past Through Commemoration EBSCO ebook academic collection |
| Editors | Laura Mattoon D’Amore, Jeffrey Meriwether |
| Publisher | Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2013 |
| ISBN | 144384585X, 9781443845854 |
| Length | 415 pages |
| Subjects | › History / Americas (North, Central, South, West Indies) History / General History / Historiography |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |