Difference between revisions of "471A3--Week 1 Questions/Comments--Thursday"
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| + | == David Thelen, “Memory and American History,” ''Journal of American History'', 75 (March 1989): 1117-29 == | ||
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| + | '''Memory--Construction or remembering?''' | ||
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| + | Do you agree that it is more important the way a memory is constructed (what influences the narrator, how a person utilizes others' memories/ideas to explain about an event or detail, his or her mood/biases etc.) rather than the accuracy of the memory itself? -avanness | ||
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| + | In David Thelen's piece, he discusses this idea between reconstruction vs. reproduction in terms of memories. How valid are the claims made that memory is in fact a reconstruction rather than a reproduction of past events? Also, how does this play into the validity of a person's memory of an event in history? Should it be trusted, and if so, to what extent? - A. Bratchie | ||
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| + | Do you agree with the statement in the Thelen article on page 1120 that “remembering appears to be far more decisively an affair of construction rather than one of mere reproduction”? Could it be possible to ever have a truly objective view on something such as the American Civil War? Also, did anyone expect the Thelen article to lapse into biology there in the middle? --Cash Nelson | ||
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| + | '''Lost Cause and the search for common memories''' | ||
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| + | On page 1123 of David Thelen’s article, he writes that “people together searched for common memories to meet present needs.” Later, on page 1126, he asks the question, “Why did some southern whites energize their resistance to Reconstruction with memories of a Lost Cause?” Did the need for southern whites to stand apart from Reconstruction initiate a common memory of some sort of “Lost Cause” even though perhaps the “cause” was a little bit different for each of them as individuals? If southern whites did not feel so strongly against the emancipation and equality of African Americans would they have all still united under such a memory as the “Lost Cause”? – Angie | ||
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| + | '''What's an historian to do?''' | ||
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| + | Is David Thelen saying that a historian should write several versions of his history, one for each audience he hopes to reach? --Bob King | ||
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| + | == Blight, ''Race and Reunion'', Title page through 5; == | ||
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| + | In Blight’s prologue, specifically on page 4, '''he writes that American’s chose romance over reality in their remembrance of the Civil War. It is easy to understand that the South might not have wanted to face the hard reality of their loss, but why [does Blight believe that]the North choose romance as well?''' Was it just as hard for the North to deal with the realities of the end of the War as it was for the South? – Angie | ||
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| + | How have race relations been affected by the reconciliationist ideals of the late nineteenth and much of the twentieth centuries? Were relations affected so much that these consequences reach into the modern era?- D. Radtke | ||
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| + | '''Are sentimental remembrances winning over reality?''' -- Bob King | ||
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| + | '''The three overall visions of Civil War memory that have developed: the reconciliationist vision, the white supremacist vision, and the emancipationist vision. We should discuss in detail the nature of these views and how they have developed over time.'''--Nick. J | ||
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| + | Blight is fairly obvious in his opinion that viewing romance over reality as a negative. How big of a detriment is this view to the memory of the war? - Victoria Y. | ||
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| + | == Fahs and Waugh, ''The Memory of the Civil War in American Culture'', 1-4 == | ||
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| + | How does Civil War memory allow for the denial of national membership to "others" (as claimed in the introduction to ''The Memory of the Civil War in American Culture'')? - Askins | ||
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| + | '''The introduction to ''The Memory of the Civil War in American Culture'' describes how the memory of the Civil War was often invoked for political purposes. To what extent is remembrance of the war actual cultural nostalgia, as opposed to a political tool?''' -GStan. | ||
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| + | Something that was interesting to me while reading the introduction to ''The Memory of the Civil War in American Culture'' was how one of the articles discusses school textbooks in the North and the South. How common was the Civil War disputed in school textbooks and also, why did the North offer so little opposition to the southern textbooks? Was it political reasons or something else? - A. Bratchie | ||
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| + | Upon reading the introduction of the memory in the Civil War I was puzzled by the statue of Lincoln that was unveiled in Richmond in 2003 brought forth protesters. After reading the sources for this week I have a better understanding for why there would be protesters because the Civil War still plays an important part in people's life's.--Nick J | ||
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| + | == Thomas Brown, ''The Public Art of Civil War Commemoration'', 1-14 == | ||
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| + | '''Why do you think women had such a desire to create commemorative groups, especially in the south, after the Civil War?''' The reading by Thomas Brown said that these groups had wanted to honor those who had died, sponsor mourning ceremonies, and engage in everyday social activities. What would they have inevitably gotten out of engaging in these types of activities? -avanness | ||
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| + | What are the driving forces behind the creation of the Lost Cause- or, more broadly, the creation of a uniquely Southern memory of the Civil War? '''Thomas Brown argues that the aforementioned mode of memory evolved from more than a hope for vindication of the Confederacy. The north, he says, came to admire the South as a "place of respite from the economic and social pressures of life in the north" (page 8). In other words, old enemies were able to reconcile, not over issues of race, but over differences in economy and everyday life. Do you agree with this assertion?''' -D. Radtke | ||
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| + | '''What do you think can be attributed to the nation's increasingly positive view towards the history and memorializing of the Civil War? What leads us as a nation to view something so costly and divisive as necessary for commemoration and reverence? -'''-Cash Nelson | ||
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| + | == '''Debate topics:''' == | ||
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| + | Reconciliation undermining racial equality- Askins | ||
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| + | Northern and Southern views on the history. --Cash | ||
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| + | Is the "lost cause" a lost cause? -- B.King | ||
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| + | == General questions == | ||
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If the Race problem was so deeply ingrained in the reasoning behind the civil war, and both sides believed they were fighting for the right causes, how did the Yankee and Confederate soldiers reconcile their differences while the race problem itself continued to grow bigger and bigger?- AJ L. | If the Race problem was so deeply ingrained in the reasoning behind the civil war, and both sides believed they were fighting for the right causes, how did the Yankee and Confederate soldiers reconcile their differences while the race problem itself continued to grow bigger and bigger?- AJ L. | ||
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| + | '''What methods of shaping people's memory of the civil war seemed to be most effective?''' The monuments that were erected, the books that told the varying history of the war (printed by both north and south), the politics of the time etc... AJ L. | ||
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| + | '''Regional memories of the war''' | ||
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| + | How does the collective memory of the Civil War from both the northern and southern perspectives influence the "American Memory" and history of the Civil War? --MK Napier | ||
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| + | How different are Western American views of the war compared to states that participated in the conflict? Is the Western view the truly neutral view? Logan T | ||
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| + | Other than the Lost Cause, what might be some reasons for why the South seems to have heavily dominated the memorializing through monuments, books, movies, etc., the Civil War? --MK Napier | ||
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| + | How did Americans remember the Civil war in the period immediately following the conflict? --B. King | ||
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| + | '''What is the LC?''' | ||
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| + | Can someone explain the Lost Cause to me? It's exactly how I'm describing myself in trying to understand what it is... --Cash Ibid --B. King | ||
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| + | ----The "Lost Cause" as an intellectual movement holds that the institution of slavery was largely a benevolent one and would have eventually died out on its own. Slaves were faithful to their owners. The South did not so much "lose" the War as they were forced to yield to a materially and economically superior foe. I think Blight talks more about it in later chapters. In a sense, the "Lost Cause" is a means of seeking some sort of justification or vindication for their ancestors. If you want to see classic Lost Causers, check out the Sons of Confederate Veterans website.... -D.R. | ||
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| + | '''Two final important questions going forward''' | ||
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| + | '''Thelen mentions that "The challenge of history is to recover the past and introduce it to the present." However, Fahs and Waugh say that the "Civil War has never receded into the remote past." Does this make it easier or more difficult to study/research how the Civil War was seen in the past versus how we’re remembering it at 150 years later? And (how) does it differ from the researching of events that have been mostly ignored for years?''' –Megan Mc. | ||
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| + | '''Are the future commemoration ceremonies of the Civil War’s 150th anniversary going to change our memory of the war by opening up new debates about how the war should be remembered?''' Logan T | ||
