Difference between revisions of "471A3--Week 12 Questions/Comments--Thursday"
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One theme that we kind of keep coming back to and that i think Horwitz's description of Stone Mountain represents, is the difficulty in balancing political correctness with existing symbols of Confederate pride. Is there a way to balance a fair and modern approach to the history of the south while avoiding socially incendiary messages - and still end up with something meaningful? --Erin B. | One theme that we kind of keep coming back to and that i think Horwitz's description of Stone Mountain represents, is the difficulty in balancing political correctness with existing symbols of Confederate pride. Is there a way to balance a fair and modern approach to the history of the south while avoiding socially incendiary messages - and still end up with something meaningful? --Erin B. | ||
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| + | On page 312 Horwitz discusses that when he visited Georgia he expected to see reduced homes with charred chimneys, but once again he learned that much of what he had absorbed of the Civil War was more mythic than factual. If Sherman's march to the sea was more mythic than factual in regards to the destruction committed against the Confederate countryside, why do southerners still view Sherman one of if not the biggest Northern villains of the Civil War? What has taken place currently in Civil War memory that make southerners despite Sherman even more today than the did during the Civil Wars?-Nick | ||
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| + | As Horwitz puts it on page 317 why is the fate of prisoner of wars arguably the most neglected aspect of the Civil War? Over 400,000 men were captured during the war and thousands died of diseases due to harsh conditions at prison camps such as Andersonville.Is it because people want to remember simply neglect the pain and suffering that the prison camps symbolized and spend more of their attention on studying aspects of the war that is not as dark and upsetting?- Nick | ||
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| + | How has Montgomery handled its historical treatment of both the Confederacy and Civil Rights? Is it doing something better than other southern towns? --Erin B. | ||
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| + | In the concluding chapter, Horwitz talks about the Robert Warren Penn essay that argues that memorializing the Civil War is "the ritual of being American." Do you think this explains why people without family connections to the Civil War are still passionate about the War? -MK | ||
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| + | Why do you think that the Robinson house was not preserved as well as the Henry house? How does this change the memory of the Battle of Manassas? -MK | ||
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| + | Horwitz concentrates on Andersonville in the chapter "Still Prisoners of this War" and how in many ways the memory of the soldiers remain prisoners. Do you agree that this idea is completely applicable to the memory of the war as a whole in American history? That it is a prisoner to our interpretations? - Victoria Y. | ||
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| + | Is Atlanta’s sanitation of their history justified? Would it be better if we all sanitized our memory of the Civil War? Would it shorten that memory? R.King | ||
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| + | In what way was the confederacy “an attempt to institute a strict interpretation of the Constitution”? R.King | ||
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| + | Does the fact that most Civil War battlefields are on Southern soil have anything to do with how the National Park Service chooses to interpret the sites? Is it the reason for their reluctance to talk about other aspects of those sites? R.King | ||
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| + | Was I the only one put off by Horwitz's willingness to break onto federal property at night to sleep on the front porch of the Jackson Shrine?-DR | ||
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| + | The whole idea of the Civil "Wargasm" seemed to me to be nothing short of a pilgrimage. Is this comparison a stretch, or do people like Rob Hodge really approach the Civil War with a reverence that approaches fanaticism?- DR | ||
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| + | Well, it's like we talked about on Tuesday, isn't it? The conversation of refusing meals and rest to have a "true" living history of the Civil War while re-enacting? That's how I view it. Some people just really have to go all out to really enjoy such a thing. I have to admit, if it wasn't for the clear issues of legality, there are historically famous places that I would kill to break into. Parthenon, anyone? --Cash | ||
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| + | Like MK, I also thought Horwitz's discussion of the Robert Warren Penn essay was interesting. It seems odd to me that the act of memorializing a time when America was divided and when citizens claimed allegiance to two different countries is such a large part of being an American today.- Angie | ||
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| + | Some would argue, Angie, that we are still two different countries with the issues of race relations. Perhaps it is memorializing as a means of understanding. --Cash | ||
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| + | In the "Prisoners of War" chapter, I think Horwitz makes a good point about how we seemed to have forgotten a large part of the war by forgetting about the prisoners of war. Not only is this important to the history of the war itself, but its also symbolic of how we have forgotten some of the dirtiest yet most significant aspects of the war. Do you think if we remembered the horrible parts of the war instead of just the romantic parts, the war would stop being so commemorated? Would that be a good or bad thing? - Angie | ||
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| + | In reading Confederates In the Attic and our studying the memory of the Civil War one thing that does not seem to be talked about is how far we come in our social norms. Considering what we have learned about the 1860s, 1880s, 1920s, 1930s, 1950s, and the 1960s why don’t we ever acknowledge how quickly American social norms have changed as compared to other nations and other times in history? Logan T | ||
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| + | Rose Sander’s class represents a point of view of the Civil War that I don’t know a name for so will call it Anti Lost Cause. Do you think that this point of view of the Civil War will be come that acceptable version of the Civil War someday? Will there every be moderate view of the war that society will hold? Will there always be extreme versions of the memory the war? Logan T | ||
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| + | Horwitz mentions running into a Japanese tour group while he was with Melly (the Scarlett look-a-like). He suggests several reasons for why the Japanese love Gone With the Wind so much but which one seems most accurate/plausible? -Megan Mc. | ||
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| + | Anyone else find it remarkable that less than 10 years ago there were several Civil War veteran widows still alive? It shows that even though we've reached the 150th anniversary it still wasn't ''that'' long ago. America's history is relatively young compared to European history. -Megan Mc. | ||
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| + | Is the heritage movement that different from the Lost Cause? Many Lost Causers defend their view in the name of Southern heritage, so what exactly differentiates the two groups?- aaskins | ||
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| + | With the way that Civil War memory and artifacts are honored and collected, why did Alberta not receive more attention than she did?- aaskins | ||
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| + | On page 313, when Horowitz describes one of the speakers at a Sons of Confederate Veterans meeting, I gained a very different idea of what the SCV meetings were like, especially compared to the meeting from the earlier chapters. Contrary to the earlier meeting which seemed fairly dignified and with a decent amount of cheer later on, this speaker made it seem like the SCV was a bunch of old angry men who got together and whined when they didn't get their way and childishly accused others of being jealous of them. - AJ | ||
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| + | We talked about it briefly last class, but in the end how effective was Horowitz' approach to writing about everything he had learned/ been through? Did his writing style help or hurt his appeal and/or content? - AJ | ||
