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Tag Archives: Historical Memory

Book Review – Memorials to Shattered Myths: Vietnam to 9/11

31 Sunday Jul 2016

Posted by thejollyhistorian in American History, Book Review, Education, Historical Memory, Memorials, Public History

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American History, Book Review, Education, Historical Memory, Memorials, Public History

Memorials

Senie, Harriet F. Memorials to Shattered Myths: Vietnam to 9/11. New York: Oxford University Press, 2016. p. 261.

How we remember and memorialize events has always been of interest to me.  My specialization in American History is up to Reconstruction.  Consequently, much of what I have studied has been mostly Civil War related:  David Blight’s Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory & Beyond the Battlefield: Race, Memory, and the American Civil War, Timothy Smith’s The Golden Age of Battlefield Preservation: The Decade of the 1890s and the Establishment of America’s First Five Military Parks & This Great Battlefield of Shiloh: History, Memory, and the Establishment of a Civil War National Military Park, Jim Weeks’ Gettysburg: Memory Market and an American Shrine, Caroline Janey’s Remembering the Civil War: Reunion and the Limits of Reconciliation, and of course, Edward Linenthal’s Sacred Ground: Americans and Their Battlefields all adorn my bookshelves.

In introducing Memorials, Seine discusses national memorials in relation to national identity, something that the United States has always and continues to struggle with.  History is not always pretty and many are, to put it mildly, uncomfortable with the uglier side of American history.  (For example: the issue of slavery is contentious when presented as part of national memory and national identity as debates over the “Confederate Flag” or blog posts such as this one demonstrate.)  Consequently, modern memorials, Seine points out, become more a memorial to the victims a la a private cemetery.

One common thread Seine identifies in the four memorials presented in this book is the heroic status conferred upon the victims and a lack of a greater historical narrative to give context.  She sees this as a “camouflage” of history with the result of defining the, “United States as a nation of victims”.  She argues that memorials are created to both remember the deceased AND the circumstances surrounding their deaths.

Seine does a good job of presenting her argument.  For each of the memorials presented she discusses “immediate memorials” (flowers, notes, teddy bears left at or near the site of the tragedy) as well as the evolution of the permanent memorials constructed.  Each chapter closes with a summation of what each memorial highlights as well as what each leave out.  This helps build her case that the larger more complicated historical narrative is missing.

Memorials will certainly get the reader thinking about national memory, the historical record, and how the two should connect.

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Week of Wanderings – Days 5 & 6

13 Thursday Aug 2015

Posted by thejollyhistorian in American History, George Washington Birthplace National Monument, Historical Memory, ThisPlaceMatters, Travel, US History, Vacation, Virginia

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American History, George Washington Birthplace National Monument, Historical Memory, ThisPlaceMatters, Travel, US History, Vacation, Virginia

Day 5 consisted of driving from NJ to La Plata, MD.  Of course, when we got up last Thursday morning we weren’t sure how far we would make it driving, and there was an equal chance that we would make it all the way home in one day much as we did when we drove to NJ.  However, breakfast and late goodbyes got us on the road home to VA later than we left to head to NJ.  Then there was traffic to contend with.  Traffic, traffic, traffic.  I moved out of NJ in 1996 (wow! 19 years ago…now I feel old) and couldn’t stand the traffic then, it is much worse now.  We made our way down the NJ Turnpike but the Delaware Memorial Bridge surprise, surprise had a backup on it.  Getting to Delaware we stopped off a Cabela’s to stretch our legs.  We got back on the road after lunch but ran into lovely traffic right around Annapolis, MD.  By the time we hit Waldorf, I was tired of moron drivers and needed a break.  Not far down the road was the afore mentioned La Plata where a Best Western provided us refuge.

Day 6 saw us take a little detour and visit George Washington Birthplace National Monument.  Part of the park rests along Pope’s Creek and another part provides access to the Potomac River.  The Potomac River Beach is smallish and currently being worked on but I was more interested in exploring the historic areas.

Me by the entrance sign - also, I am not in fact Batman but the JollyHistorian!

Me by the entrance sign – also, I am not in fact Batman but the JollyHistorian!

DSC01335 DSC01346

 

With no picture or architectural drawings, in 1926 Congress authorized the construction of a replica of the house in which George Washington was born.  At the time the site was managed by the Wakefield National Memorial Association and a generic plantation home was designed and built.  The spot of the actual birthplace home was partially excavated in 1930 and fully excavated in 1936 and again in 1974.  So there is a generic plantation “memorial home” to visit and an outline of the actual home discovered by archeologists in the 1930s.  Overall, it is a neat place to visit and an interesting lesson on preservation and public memory (or guesswork, you decide).

So ended the Week of Wanderings as Day 7 consisted of resting up and preparing to return to work the next day for Mrs. Historian (AJ) and myself.

Symbols of Insurrection

15 Wednesday Jul 2015

Posted by thejollyhistorian in American History, Historical Memory, Insurrection, Shays' Rebellion, US History

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American History, Historical Memory, Insurrection, Shays' Rebellion, US History

Much has been written about Confederate symbolism recently.  This is not a new debate.  Anyone remember back to 2006 when a high school student wanted to wear a Confederate flag themed prom dress?  (No?  Look here.)  Or the teen who faced similar issues in 2012?  (No?  Look here.)  Union symbolism has not been immune to controversy either.  Anyone remember the spat over the Lincoln statue in Richmond, VA?  (No?  Look here.)

There is no doubt that symbolism is important in American life.  The recent controversy over the Confederate flag has brought an old argument back into the limelight.  Articles remind us that “Heritage is not History“, that the “states rights” argument is myth, and that the Confederate flag flew in the North too.

All this discussion brought up the question about other failed instances of insurrections in American History.(And if you don’t think that South Carolina firing on Fort Sumter classifies as an “an act or instance of revolting against civil authority or an established government” I don’t know what will.)  Do they have monuments too?  Lots, one, two?  Perhaps an obscure historical marker by the side of the road?  Well, let’s take a look at one in particular: Shays’ Rebellion.

This armed uprising took place even before the Constitution was ratified.  In Massachusetts in 1786-87 we have the event known as Shays’ Rebellion.  which has traditionally framed as a struggle between poor farmers and the wealthy Boston elite.  Farmers facing economic hardship and foreclosure took matters into their own hands by closing courts.  In Springfield, 39 years old Daniel Shays led 1500 men, ex Continental soldiers, to seize the courthouse and headed for the armory.  The frightened governor called up the militia, some 4400, and Shay’s force was quickly surprised and routed.  An overall amnesty was issued though Shays and 13 followers were tried and convicted.  They were pardoned.(1)  Recent research on Shays’ Rebellion challenges the traditional view that it was mostly struggling farmers and sees the insurrection as more general.(2)

I did find a few markers dedicated to Shays and Shays’ Rebellion.

Shays 2 Shays1 Shays3

However the most interesting marker related story I discovered is this one.

Shays Newpaper

Evidently, the interpretation of Shays’ Rebellion changed between 1927 which touts, “Obedience to law is true liberty” and one erected in 1987 which states that Shays, “fought for the common people against the established powers” and “tried to make real the vision of justice and equality embodied in our revolutionary declaration of independence”.(3)

Shays’ Rebellion never took on the scope and scale of the American Civil War nor did it include such painful issues as racism and slavery.  Yet it is a reminder that there is perception and there is reality and when it comes to human action sometimes the two don’t reconcile neatly.

___________

1 Carol Berkin, A Brilliant Solution: Inventing the American Constitution (New York: Mariner Books, 2003), 26-27.

2 Leonard L. Richards, Shays’s Rebellion: The AMerican Revolution’s Final Battle (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2003).

3 http://shaysrebellion.stcc.edu/shaysapp/scene.do?shortName=Epilogue#_ftnref6

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