Myth, Memory, and the Making of the American Landscape

"Penetrating insight into the processes by which our collective historical memory is constructed. Through a range of case studies, the authors explore how and why certain landscapes and monuments are intentionally endowed with specific messages, why certain stories are obscured or forgotten, and how collective memories change over time." --James Delle, Franklin and Marshall College The authors in this collection show how the creation of a collective memory of highly visible objects and landscapes is an ongoing struggle, their meanings always being constructed, changed, and challenged.  The sites and symbols the authors address are nationally recognized and include a balance of places that illuminate class, ethnic, racial, and historical experiences. Focusing on material culture, they explore the tensions that exist among various groups--elite landowners, the National Park Service, preservationists, minority groups--who compete for control over the interpretation of American public history. CONTENTS Foreword, by Edward T. Linenthal The Making of the American Landscape, by Paul A. Shackel Part An Exclusionary Past, by Paul A. Shackel 1. Of Saints and Mythic Landscapes of the Old and New South, by Audrey J. Horning 2. The Woman Memorial to Women's Rights Leaders and the Perceived Images of the Women's Movement, by Courtney Workman 3. The Third Battle of Power, Identity, and the Forgotten African-American Past, by Erika K. Martin Seibert 4. Remembering a Japanese-American Concentration Camp at Manzanar National Historic Site, by Janice L. Dubel 5. Wounded The Conflict of Interpretation, by Gail Brown Part Commemoration and the Making of a Patriotic Past, by Paul A. Shackel 6. Freeze-Frame, September 17, 1862: A Preservation Battle at Antietam National Battlefield Park, by Martha Temkin 7. The Robert Gould Shaw Redefining the Role of the Fifty-Fourth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, by Paul A. Shackel 8. Buried in the Rose Levels of Meaning at Arlington National Cemetery and the Robert E. Lee Memorial, by Laurie Burgess Part Nostalgia and the Legitimation of American Heritage, by Paul A. Shackel 9. Authenticity, Legitimation, and Twentieth-Century The John D. Rockefeller, Jr., Carriage Roads, Acadia National Park, Maine, by Matthew M. Palus 10. The Birthplace of a Archaeology and Meaning at George Washington Birthplace National Monument, by Joy Beasley 11. Nostalgia and Camden Yards in Baltimore, by Erin Donovan 12. Abraham Lincoln's Birthplace The Making of an American Icon, by Dwight T. Pitcaithley   Paul A. Shackel, associate professor of anthropology at the University of Maryland, is the author of Archaeology and Created Public History in a National Park; Culture Change and the New An Archaeology of the Early American Industrial Era ; and Personal Discipline and Material An Archaeology of Annapolis, Maryland, 1695-1870 .