View source for 471A3--Week 9 Questions/Comments--Tuesday

In the Shackel piece, the author talks about African Americans experiences during the war and after. In particular, he mentions a variety of ways in which African Americans began to be recognized especially in the mid-twentieth century. What were some of these ways? How do you think this group of people would have responded to finally being included in the "national consciousness?"  -Avanness

A lot of the readings we have read have talked about how the memorial organizations, monuments, ceremonies etc. have at least partially been created because of the desire to transmit stories to younger generations. Do you think this remains one of the main factors as to why individuals or groups of people wish to commemorate or memorialize events or figures in history today?  -Avanness

Le Anne White concludes her essay with a pondering about what memorialization will look like the further we get from the Civil War.  Do you think we as a people will ever put enough distance between us and the Civil War to look at it with a less jaundiced eye? -R.King

To me the Ayers piece was the most interesting of the three readings. Do you think that a new revisionist look at the Civil War would "place more distance between nineteenth century Americans and ourselves,"? -R.King

I was a bit disturbed by Shackel's statement that the National Park Service's "interpretation" of the Manassas battle field purposely eliminates any discussion of the causes of the Civil War.  Don't you think they should embrace that aspect of the history and at the very least put the battle fought there in some kind of context? -R.King

In Memory in Black and White Shackle discusses how the construction of public memory has changed since World War II. Author Michael Kammen states that since World War II, commemoration activities in the United States have became increasingly decentralized as the federal government has played a decreasing role in the construction of public memory (Shakle pg. 13).  The lack of commemoration activities has played a significant role in the construction of public memory, but what other factors contribute to public memory? Also is the decentralization of commemoration a depoliticized process, or a highly politicized process? -Nick. J

I also really liked the Ayers article, and reading it made me realize how deeply ingrained the Ken Burns Civil War narrative is in me.  Do you think that that narrative is still serving a purpose in American memory?  What purpose is that and what would change that narrative's usefulness in defining us as a nation?  --Erin B

Ayers brought up several important points regarding the way narratives on the Civil War have transformed.  Is there one or more interpretations that hold more weight than the others?  Also, he notes that "slavery and freedom remain the keys to understanding the war- but they are the place to begin our questions, not end them." Do you agree with this assessment?  -ABratchie 

Do you think that the partnership between African Americans and white women at the University of Mississippi to change and "take aim at the very aspects of Southern culture that the UDC had labored so diligently to promote" was an isolated case (226)?  How much of the Civil War memory do you think really prompted this type of action on the part of the students? -ABratchie

Why was the movement of the Confederate rock to another state building not contested by the students from th University of Missouri who had fought for its removal from campus?  Does this say something about the community that the school had created or the community the students expected from the school (229ish Leeann Whites)?  --Erin B.

Why did revisionism which was so powerful in the first half of the twentieth century fade away as Ayers says in the second half of the 20th century. Were revisionists simply sentimentalists? -Nick J