Here, social-historian Bodnar (Indiana Univ.) offers a moderately
enticing analysis of the dynamic between national agendas and local
attitudes as it surfaces in public ceremonies and commemorations.
Bodnar first offers an overview of the interaction in American
history between official culture, or the manifestations of state
interest, and "vernacular culture," the particular emphases of
local and ethnic groups. These are the poles between which activity
surrounding national holidays, anniversaries, and the construction
of monuments is torn in Bodnar's formulation, with the recent
example of the Vietnam Memorial cited as a resurgence of the
vernacular over the official, of individual sorrow and loss over
patriotic pride. Turning to specific communities in the Midwest,
where immigrant groups provided a significant percentage of the
population in this century, shifts in rural Swedish, Norwegian, and
Mennonite celebrations in the last hundred years come under
scrutiny, as do changes in ethnic-flavored civic events in
Indianapolis and Cleveland. Official control of displays of public
memory in the region is seen to increase with the century's
advance, when patriotic passions inflamed by war and the ideology
of the melting pot gain the upper hand. The existence of the
National Park Service as a cadre of professionals dedicated to the
control of national landmarks and commemorative events becomes the
supreme example here of the institutionalization of that trend.
Ponderous, although well-researched, and suffering also from being
intuitively obvious, to the extent that anyone seeking revelation
as to how a national identity is forged, and stamped on its
citizens, will be disappointed. (Kirkus Reviews)
In a compelling inquiry into public events ranging from the
building of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial through ethnic community
fairs to pioneer celebrations, John Bodnar explores the stories,
ideas, and symbols behind American commemorations over the last
century. Such forms of historical consciousness, he argues, do not
necessarily preserve the past but rather address serious political
matters in the present.
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