When Bill Clinton, flanked by Presidents Bush past and present,
stood in the rain in Little Rock to open his presidential library,
the moment seemed to transcend the partisan fray. The imposing
structure itself was carefully crafted to play up Clinton's
accomplishments and legacy, while downplaying the impeachment
affair that shadowed his second term. That focus--on the higher
purposes, meanings, and accomplishments of a particular
presidency--also deeply reflected the spirit of most other
presidential libraries and memorials.
Expanding on this essential theme, Benjamin Hufbauer explores
the visual and material cultures of presidential
commemoration--memorials and monuments, libraries and archives--and
the problematic ways in which presidents themselves have largely
taken over their own commemoration. Describing how presidential
commemoration has evolved over the past century, Hufbauer reviews
the making and meaning of the Lincoln Memorial, the development of
Franklin Roosevelt's archives into the first federal presidential
library and museum, and the imperial implications of LBJ's truly
monumental library in Austin. He contrasts the recent $20 million
reinvention of the Truman Library, designed to boldly tackle
controversial issues related to racism, McCarthyism, and nuclear
anxiety, with the Nixon Library's and Reagan Library's efforts to
minimize fallout from the Watergate and Iran-Contra scandals. He
also provides the first detailed study of the meaning and influence
of the Smithsonian's popular First Ladies exhibit.
Hufbauer sees these various commemorative sites as playing a key
role in the construction of our collective political and cultural
self-images and as another sign of our preoccupation with celebrity
culture. Ultimately, he contends, these presidential temples
reflect not only our civil religion but also the extraordinary
expansion of executive authority--and presidential
self-commemoration--since FDR.
While presidential libraries and memorials have also become
media-driven attractions that often contribute significantly to the
economies of their home cities, Hufbauer shows that their primary
function remains the transformation of presidential history into
presidential myth for the general public.
General
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