We Are What We Remember

Reviews / Votes

"Based on experiential fieldwork and rigorous archival research, as well as discourses grounded in critical theory and current scholarly conversations, each contributor poses questions about myth, memorials - and, when called for, counter-memorials - from a range of disciplines. Indeed, We Are What We Remember inventories the ways in which we wrestle over control of public memory, the battlefields and ideologies over which that memory is fought, and the tools by which history is cemented and toppled: the monument, the burial ground, the presidential speech, the museum, the political cartoon. We Are What We Remember is an important contribution to discourse and will be an excellent resource for the upper-division undergraduate or graduate classroom, as well as a vital tool for researchers and practitioners." - Scott Magelssen, author of Living History Museums: Undoing History Through Performance"This is an impressive book, wisely organized, skillfully introduced, and graced with apt illustrations ... every reader will be struck by the overall high quality. Each essay satisfies exacting standards of research, lucidity, and insight. These original and important contributions are often hard-hitting and provocative. Collectively they are bound to make a stir among established scholars; university students new to the field of American/memory studies will be intrigued and inspired." - David Mayers, author of Dissenting Voices in America's Rise to Power"A first-rate collection that directly and profitably addresses the role of history in national and other identities (and vice versa). A series of perceptive and ably-presented essays assess the process by which America's history and identity are reflected in and sustained through commemoration. Important not only for those concerned with the history, but also for comparable studies elsewhere." - Jeremy Black, author of Using History, The Curse of History, and Historiography: Contesting the Past; Claiming the Future"The essays in We Are What We Remember present valuable case studies of commemorative practices in the United States that remind us how constant efforts to honor and control the past have worked to define the present throughout US history. Many of these essays are particularly valuable because they expose unexpected consequences of commemorations or practices that function to mark public memory in ways that challenge dominant historical narratives. Examining everything from African American Civil War reenactors to lesbian community historians to white supremacist rituals at the University of Vermont, these essays will interest readers in a variety of disciplines who want to consider some of the less familiar aspects of commemoration. Meriwether and D'Amore have collected essays that anyone working on memory studies will want to consider." - Sarah J. Purcell, author of Sealed with Blood: War, Sacrifice, and Memory in Revolutionary America"America's self-image - how it is created, sustained, and deployed - matters greatly to everyone on the planet. The editors have assembled an exciting combination of established and emerging scholars, who address well-chosen topics with impressive expertise and style. Perhaps unexpectedly, given the scholarly quality here, many chapters are real page turners, offering insights into practices that create 'a past that is always already tainted with its present moment' (xx). It is a particularly timely and provocative exploration of what is in play and what is at stake as European states embark on a protracted period of commemoration of World War I." - Professor Victor Merriman, Edge Hill University