In Westmoreland County, Virginia, stands the George Washington Birthplace National Monument. Here, there is a prominent structure known as the “Memorial House”, built in 1931, that serves as a replica of the house where the Father of the Country resided until he was three years of age. However, the discovery of another foundation, “Building X”, generated an eighty year ongoing battle for authenticity of the site. This continuous battle of “memory, ownership of the past, and the wonderfully slippery meaning of authenticity” (6), provided Seth C. Bruggeman with the case study for cultural change over time.
Seth C. Bruggeman, who teaches history and American studies at Temple University, created the monograph, Here, George Washington Was Born as a survey of American Memory and Commemoration. This monograph evolved out of his work as a Graduate student when the National Park Services had hired him to write the site’s administrative history. However, as he continued his research, Bruggeman contended that “this is neither a story about George Washington nor necessarily about the commemoration of his birth, but rather one about how and what we choose to remember and why those choices change over time”(9). With that being said, Here, George Washington Was Born provided readers not only an analysis of 20th century Historic preservation but also insight to the field of memory studies. Essentially, Bruggeman monograph acknowledges the continuous debate between Public Historians’, Academic Historians’, and the Public’s view when interpreting history. Bruggeman correlated this in relations to the national park services, the women of association groups, and the visitors of the George Washington birth site, “who considered the park most sig...
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...t, because this book is written as a first person narrative, in comparison to a traditional third-person voice, the general public would find this an illuminating read due to its easy to follow language and layout. In essence, the book is structured very proficiently. The index by itself is adequate is not separated by primary and secondary sources but all listed alphabetically. However, by adding Notes to the Pages as well as an inclusion of a Bibliography, Bruggeman was able to give more detailed entries. In a sense, this monograph heeds towards a more encyclopedic style, as within each chapter are sub-topics that Bruggeman evaluates. Although, the syntax can be a bit excessive, Bruggeman has written an effective case study of how theoretical issues of historic preservation can affect the way one interprets the site and how one can evoke their memory to that site.
Monuments and museums are arenas of public history and for the formation and articulation of identities and narratives.[1] Decisions taken as to the formation of museums and the selection, display and organisation of exhibits are influenced by criteria which are not necessarily politically neutral; these may especially involve devices of political elites to emphasise aspects of communal togetherness and thus exert control over communities.[2] Memory and commemoration of past events and generations is by its nature a political and contested act, especially in sharply divided societies.[3] It is no surprise that recently established governments and states should particularly concern themselves with the production of such forms of festivities, commemorations, and monuments.[4] As rulers of a sharply divided society, unionist elites in Northern Ireland in the aftermath of its eventful creation in 1920-1 had particular reasons to concern themselves, and did concern themselves, with such strategies of power.[5] The integration of the province's Catholic minority may have been, or may have been felt to be, beyond the rulers of Northern Ireland;[6] but this very fact heightened the importance of preserving the highest possible degree of political unity under unionist hegemony among the Protestant majority.[7]
George Washington became President in 1789 and since then has been regarded as America’s “Founding Father”(10). This grand and hero-like status is said to have “began gravitating to Washington six months before the Declaration of Independence, when one Levi Allen addressed him in a letter as ‘our political Father.’”(10). The preservation of Washington’s role as a national hero has been allowed by authors and the media omitting his many flaws as if they had either been forgotten or were no longer important. Yet by excluding these human faults, they have projected an almost god-like hero and inflicted him upon the nation as their Father, somebody whose “life still has the power to inspire anyone”(10).
America is a nation that is often glorified in textbooks as a nation of freedom, yet history shows a different, more radical viewpoint. In Howard Zinn’s A People's History of the United States, we take a look at American history through a different lens, one that is not focused on glorifying our history, but giving us history through the eyes of the people. “This is a nation of inconsistencies”, as so eloquently put by Mary Elizabeth Lease highlights a nation of people who exploited and sought to keep down those who they saw as inferior, reminding us of more than just one view on a nation’s history, especially from people and a gender who have not had an easy ride. In some respects, we can attribute the founding of America and all its subsequent impacts to Christopher Columbus. Columbus, a hero in the United States, has his own holiday and we view him as the one who paved the way for America to be colonized.
Gorn, Elliot J., Randy Roberts, and Terry D. Bilhartz. Constructing the American Past: A Source Book of a People’s History. 7th ed. Vol 2. New Jersy: Pearson Education Inc., 2011. Print.
Hart, Diane, Bert Bower, and Jim Lobdell. History alive!:. Palo Alto, Calif.: Teachers' Curriculum Institute, 2002. Print.
When the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2011 rocked New York City, Pennsylvania, and Washington D.C., the word “tragedy” was used on a grandiose level around the world. For the people who lived close enough to experience the events first-hand, they may not have even called it a tragedy; perhaps they called it a misfortune, retaliation, lack of a strong government, unreal, or maybe even rebirth. In the coming years after the attacks, everything between standing united as a nation to declaring a war had flourished; but how has that left us - the land that has no distinct ethnicity - feel about each other? Why is it that fear is usually missing in the affective mnemonics of memorial sites, which, after all, are signifiers of some of the most horrific violence in human history? Do memorials dedicated to these attacks bring us together in terms of understanding, or is it just continual collective grief? This paper will cover the global complexity of the 9/11 attacks, the Empty Sky 9/11 Memorial in Liberty State Park, NJ, and factors and theories that memorials do influence a sense of complexity. The ground of public memory is always in motion, shifting with the tectonics of national identity. I chose the Empty Sky 9/11 Memorial as my topic of observation as I, personally, visit a few times throughout the year to pay respects to people I personally knew who perished in the attacks to the World Trade Center. I was in the 5th grade when this happened, and had absolutely no clue what was going on until my father did not return home until two days later with a bandage wrapped around his head and his devastating recollection of what happened just before he arrived to his job. The emotions that I feel within myself compared to others will...
...’s book accomplishes a lot in its timid three hundred pages, it lacks more examples of modern architecture and historical landmarks such as the ones discussed above. Also, the lack of chronological order is a new approach, but it might not appeal to all readers.
“I think it wiser not to keep open the sores of war but to follow the examples of those nations who endeavored to obliterate the marks of civil strife, to commit to oblivion the feelings engendered” written by Robert E. Lee in 1866. Monuments celebrate origins. They demonstrate a community’s symbolic honoring of events and people for qualities it finds indispensable to its identity. But the ones in Virginia do not. They represent a various amount of These confederate monuments ought to be placed in a more private area for individuals who want to view them can. Likewise, these monuments influence individuals to feel awkward in their consistently lives. A few people differ and feel that these remembered monuments not be brought down, and should stay up.
Waldo E. Martin, Jr. and Patricia Sullivan. New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 2000. U.S. History in Context. Web. The Web.
hiatus. Plans for a national monument began as early as 1783 when Congress proposed that an
Duncan’s (1991) analysis of western museums is defined through the theme of “durable objects” as a criterion to judge the heritage of American and European art as a ritual of the modern state. In this manner western art museums are built like “temples” as a symbolic and figurative representation of greatness of western culture throughout the world: “[They] are more like the traditional ceremonial monuments that museum buildings often emulate—classical temples” (Duncan 90). This interpretation of American/European museums defines a dominant source of cultural heritage that ritualizes
William Graebner and Leonard Richards. The American Record: Images of our Nation’s Past. McGraw-Hilll; 5 edition. May 27, 2005
History has a strange way of coming back around when it comes to human civilization. It has been said repeatedly that those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it. However, just because there is a potential for danger in the future, this does not mean that humanity must ignore what once was. History is normally remembered through what is known as a memorial. When a memorial is put into a physical representation, it is then known as a monument.The need to memorialize events or people is complex; in some cases, monuments honor moments of great achievement, while in other cases, monuments pay homage to deep sacrifice. A monument's size, location, and materials are all considerations in planning and creating a memorial to the past. Examples of such feats are the Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, and even Mount Rushmore. For the latter of the
Living in South Dakota my whole life, I can’t even count the number of times I have visited Mount Rushmore. It seems as though every summer my family plans a trip to go see something that has not changed since 1941. The enormous faces are still the same, the cluster of rocks at the bottom still there, and the curious crowd standing before the exceptional sculpture remains. Although nothing about Mount Rushmore has changed,
Public History sites, such as museums, monuments, and memorials, have become a big part of American History and culture. They preserve, interpret, and project history and memories to the American public, who largely do not attend a history class after high school. They are sometimes the only knowledge of history some people get. These places are not only educational places but also places of political and cultural backlash. Public history sites have lots of severe issues because the museum staff follow the popular culture and do not want to offend the mass. These issues are what caused great political debates such as the fight over civil war monuments.