Memory's Nation
The Place of Plymouth Rock
Published on 29. February 2012
Book
Paperback/Softback
720 pages
978-0-8078-6593-4 (ISBN)
Description
Long celebrated as a symbol of the country's origins, Plymouth Rock no longer receives much national attention. In fact, historians now generally agree that the Pilgrims' storied landing on the Rock never actually took place--the tradition having emerged more than a century after the arrival of the Mayflower.
In Memory's Nation, however, John Seelye is not interested in the factual truth of the landing. He argues that what truly gives Plymouth Rock its significance is more than two centuries of oratorical, literary, and artistic celebrations of the Pilgrims' arrival. Seelye traces how different political, religious, and social groups used the image of the Rock on behalf of their own specific causes and ideologies. Drawing on a wealth of speeches, paintings, and popular illustrations, he shows how Plymouth Rock changed in meaning over the years, beginning as a symbol of freedom evoked in patriotic sermons at the start of the Revolution and eventually becoming an icon of exclusion during the 1920s.
A UNC Press Enduring Edition -- UNC Press Enduring Editions use the latest in digital technology to make available again books from our distinguished backlist that were previously out of print. These editions are published unaltered from the original, and are presented in affordable paperback formats, bringing readers both historical and cultural value.
In Memory's Nation, however, John Seelye is not interested in the factual truth of the landing. He argues that what truly gives Plymouth Rock its significance is more than two centuries of oratorical, literary, and artistic celebrations of the Pilgrims' arrival. Seelye traces how different political, religious, and social groups used the image of the Rock on behalf of their own specific causes and ideologies. Drawing on a wealth of speeches, paintings, and popular illustrations, he shows how Plymouth Rock changed in meaning over the years, beginning as a symbol of freedom evoked in patriotic sermons at the start of the Revolution and eventually becoming an icon of exclusion during the 1920s.
A UNC Press Enduring Edition -- UNC Press Enduring Editions use the latest in digital technology to make available again books from our distinguished backlist that were previously out of print. These editions are published unaltered from the original, and are presented in affordable paperback formats, bringing readers both historical and cultural value.
Reviews / Votes
[Seelye] says flatly that the Plymouth Rock legend was a myth, but charts how the myth evolved over the years--in paintings, literature and public speeches--and how various political and social movements (especially abolition) made use of it. The book is rich, even lavish, in its detail . . . on subjects that range from early New England patriotic iconography . . . to the rivalry between Plymouth and Provincetown over Pilgrim bragging rights, to how the Rock itself has been displayed over the centuries.--Publishers Weekly|""An extensive and often entertaining study of the place of Plymouth Rock in the national memory.""--Boston Globe|""Seelye's canvas is both sweeping and subtle. . . . Theoretically sophisticated and deeply researched, this splendid account is both unassuming and ambitious. It offers a gold mine of information for all students of American intellectual and social history.""--Choice|""Seelye's survey of the multiple meanings of Plymouth Rock is stippled with keen insights and wry ironies that make for fascinating reading. Equally enlightening is his account of Plymouth Rock's evolution as a shrine and tourist attraction.""--Christian Science Monitor|""Memory's Nation by John Seelye is a rich and enormously detailed study of the idea of Plymouth Rock in American cultural and political life.""--AB Bookman's WeeklyMore details
Edition
New edition
Language
English
Place of publication
Chapel Hill
United States
Edition type
New edition
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 42 mm
Weight
1146 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-8078-6593-4 (9780807865934)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
11/2000
The University of North Carolina Press
€29.49
Available for download
Person
John Seelye is Graduate Research Professor of American Literature at the University of Florida in Gainesville. He is author of a number of books in the field of American studies, including two volumes on the role of rivers in opening and permitting communications between the territories that became the United States.
Content
ContentsPreface
Introduction
1. A Boat, a Ship, Some People
2. The Liberty Boys Hoist One for the Forefathers
3. The Federalists Take Their Stand on the Rock
4. Webster and the Rock
5. Wherein Tears Are Struck from the Rock
6. Circumferential Matters Relating to the Rock
7. The Great Trinitarian-Unitarian-Congregational Battle over the Ownership of the Pilgrims and Their Rock
8. Concerning Certain Flaws in the Rock
9. The Rock Rolled Back
10. Tabling the Rock
11. Written on the Rock
12. Setting Free the Rock
13. Rock Ballast for the Ship of State
14. Wherein the Rock Becomes a Rolling Stone
15. Carving a Face on the Rock
16. Feminizing the Rock
17. Under the Rock?Something for Bowdoin
18. Cutting a Colossus from the Rock
19. The Rock's Red Glare
20. Brooklyn Nights?Something by Way of Lighter Fare
21. The Stern and Rock-Bound Lodge
22. Wherein the Rock Gets Reconstructed
23. The Pilgrim Fathers, Where Are They?
24. The Rock Impounded
25. The Statue and the Rock
Sanct Graal: A Forwarding Address
Bibliography
Acknowledgments
Index
Illustrations
1. The Landing of the Pilgrim Fathers, after Charles Lucy, ca. 1850
2. Henry Sargent, The Landing of the Fathers, ca. 1815
3. Edwin White, Signing the Compact in the Cabin of the Mayflower, 1867
4. Charles Lucy, The Departure of the Pilgrim Fathers, 1853
5. Design for an American bank note, ca. 1850
6. Jenny Brownscombe, The Landing of the Pilgrims, ca. 1920
7. Advertisement travesty of Charles Lucy's Landing, ca. 1885
8. Sam Hill, engraved invitation to a Feast of Shells, ca. 1798-1800
9. Michel Felice Corne, The Landing of the Forefathers, ca. 1798-1800
10. Corne, an alternative Landing, ca. 1800
11. Frontispiece to The Awful Beacon, 1816
12. Certificate of membership in the Pilgrim Society, 1820
13. Peter Rothermel, The Landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock, 1854
14. Robert Weir, The Embarkation of the Pilgrims, 1843
15. Thomas Hovendon, The Last Moments of John Brown, 1884
16. Engraved version of Rothermel's Landing, 1869; treasury bill inspired by Rothermel's rendition, ca. 1920
17. The Return of the Mayflower, after George Henry Boughton, ca. 1870
18. Photographic tableau featuring John Alden and Priscilla
19. Henry Bacon, The Landing of the Pilgrims, 1877; sketch by William Halsall of The Mayflower in Plymouth Harbor, 1882
20. Patriotic lithograph broadside, ca. 1862
21. Engraved broadside depicting Hammatt Billings's National Monument to the Forefathers, ca. 1855
22. The completed Forefathers monument; close-up of the figure of Liberty
23. Augustus Saint-Gaudens, The Puritan, 1885
24. Tompkins H. Matteson, Signing the Compact on Board the Mayflower, 1853
25. John Quincy Adams Ward, The Pilgrim, 1885
26. Edward Percy Moran, untitled sketch of the Landing, ca. 1912; lithograph by Henry A. Ogden, The Landing of the Pilgrims, 1920
27. A triptych of chromos from the 1880s
28. J. Steeple Davis, lithograph portrayal of Miles Standish and his men, 1895
29. Hammatt Billings, baldachino for Plymouth Rock, designed 1855, completed 1867
30. The Pilgrim Memorial Monument, Provincetown, 1910
31. Henry Cabot Lodge with Calvin and Grace Coolidge, photographed by the Rock in 1920
32. Sketch by McKim, Mead, and White for the tercentenary canopy
33. The Landing reenacted for the cameras, August 1921
34. Coolidge standing on the Rock; schoolchildren admiring the Rock
35. The 1916 design for the temple to shelter the Rock; architect's plan for the portico and harbor
36. Frederick Burr Opper, cartoon from Puck, ca. 1885
Introduction
1. A Boat, a Ship, Some People
2. The Liberty Boys Hoist One for the Forefathers
3. The Federalists Take Their Stand on the Rock
4. Webster and the Rock
5. Wherein Tears Are Struck from the Rock
6. Circumferential Matters Relating to the Rock
7. The Great Trinitarian-Unitarian-Congregational Battle over the Ownership of the Pilgrims and Their Rock
8. Concerning Certain Flaws in the Rock
9. The Rock Rolled Back
10. Tabling the Rock
11. Written on the Rock
12. Setting Free the Rock
13. Rock Ballast for the Ship of State
14. Wherein the Rock Becomes a Rolling Stone
15. Carving a Face on the Rock
16. Feminizing the Rock
17. Under the Rock?Something for Bowdoin
18. Cutting a Colossus from the Rock
19. The Rock's Red Glare
20. Brooklyn Nights?Something by Way of Lighter Fare
21. The Stern and Rock-Bound Lodge
22. Wherein the Rock Gets Reconstructed
23. The Pilgrim Fathers, Where Are They?
24. The Rock Impounded
25. The Statue and the Rock
Sanct Graal: A Forwarding Address
Bibliography
Acknowledgments
Index
Illustrations
1. The Landing of the Pilgrim Fathers, after Charles Lucy, ca. 1850
2. Henry Sargent, The Landing of the Fathers, ca. 1815
3. Edwin White, Signing the Compact in the Cabin of the Mayflower, 1867
4. Charles Lucy, The Departure of the Pilgrim Fathers, 1853
5. Design for an American bank note, ca. 1850
6. Jenny Brownscombe, The Landing of the Pilgrims, ca. 1920
7. Advertisement travesty of Charles Lucy's Landing, ca. 1885
8. Sam Hill, engraved invitation to a Feast of Shells, ca. 1798-1800
9. Michel Felice Corne, The Landing of the Forefathers, ca. 1798-1800
10. Corne, an alternative Landing, ca. 1800
11. Frontispiece to The Awful Beacon, 1816
12. Certificate of membership in the Pilgrim Society, 1820
13. Peter Rothermel, The Landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock, 1854
14. Robert Weir, The Embarkation of the Pilgrims, 1843
15. Thomas Hovendon, The Last Moments of John Brown, 1884
16. Engraved version of Rothermel's Landing, 1869; treasury bill inspired by Rothermel's rendition, ca. 1920
17. The Return of the Mayflower, after George Henry Boughton, ca. 1870
18. Photographic tableau featuring John Alden and Priscilla
19. Henry Bacon, The Landing of the Pilgrims, 1877; sketch by William Halsall of The Mayflower in Plymouth Harbor, 1882
20. Patriotic lithograph broadside, ca. 1862
21. Engraved broadside depicting Hammatt Billings's National Monument to the Forefathers, ca. 1855
22. The completed Forefathers monument; close-up of the figure of Liberty
23. Augustus Saint-Gaudens, The Puritan, 1885
24. Tompkins H. Matteson, Signing the Compact on Board the Mayflower, 1853
25. John Quincy Adams Ward, The Pilgrim, 1885
26. Edward Percy Moran, untitled sketch of the Landing, ca. 1912; lithograph by Henry A. Ogden, The Landing of the Pilgrims, 1920
27. A triptych of chromos from the 1880s
28. J. Steeple Davis, lithograph portrayal of Miles Standish and his men, 1895
29. Hammatt Billings, baldachino for Plymouth Rock, designed 1855, completed 1867
30. The Pilgrim Memorial Monument, Provincetown, 1910
31. Henry Cabot Lodge with Calvin and Grace Coolidge, photographed by the Rock in 1920
32. Sketch by McKim, Mead, and White for the tercentenary canopy
33. The Landing reenacted for the cameras, August 1921
34. Coolidge standing on the Rock; schoolchildren admiring the Rock
35. The 1916 design for the temple to shelter the Rock; architect's plan for the portico and harbor
36. Frederick Burr Opper, cartoon from Puck, ca. 1885