Difference between revisions of "471A3--Week 14 Questions/Comments--Tuesday"
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I thought the Shackel piece was interesting, namely his discussion of the neo-confederate movement. He precedes this by talking about how African Americans tried to preserve their heritage which was an interesting contrast between the way the South tries to remember their heritage. Do you think that either African Americans or proponents of the Confederacy are successfully able to preserve their 'hertiage' and how far should a group of go to do so (like the League of the South)? -ABratchie | I thought the Shackel piece was interesting, namely his discussion of the neo-confederate movement. He precedes this by talking about how African Americans tried to preserve their heritage which was an interesting contrast between the way the South tries to remember their heritage. Do you think that either African Americans or proponents of the Confederacy are successfully able to preserve their 'hertiage' and how far should a group of go to do so (like the League of the South)? -ABratchie | ||
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| + | Shackel starts off his piece by saying that the Lost Cause and the many monuments and other commemoration materials stemmed partly from their being no political outlet for southerners to express their views in. After the Civil War, Southerners were not pushing for the restoration of their cultural heritage and values on a political field, so they turned to commemoration. If neo-confederates are coming into existence, are monuments and commemoration still needed in the South? Why are there neo-confederate politics if the Lost Cause has been such a popular movement, was that movement not enough? - Angie | ||
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| + | McConnell's piece had a lot of interesting points that we have sort of touched on throughout the semester. Towards the end of the chapter, he discusses historical memory and briefly touches on its origins. How much trust and credibility should be placed on historical memory of the Civil War? -ABratchie | ||
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| + | I really liked how McConnell discussed public space and how what goes into that public space is reflective of who is in power. If we are to look at public spaces over time and see what has changed or been placed in them (such as monuments, buildings, or even plaques) it seems as though we could make a judgement of who was in power at the time. When confederate memorials were built, it seems safe to say that Confederate sympathizers were in charge. But when a confederate flag is brought down, does that say that they are no longer in that position? In the end, public spaces seem really important to how we understand society. - Angie | ||
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| + | Do you think that historians today should make an effort to try to recognize and establish monuments for people today who were left out by those in power at the time? Or is that part of our history? -MK | ||
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| + | Why do you think there was so much resentment from Southerns to the erection of an Arthur Ash on Monument Avenue in Richmond Virginia, where Ash was from. Was the only reason they were against it was because they felt that the monument did no belong there since this famous avenue only contained monuments of Confederate Generals. Do you think if the Ash monument was put somewhere besides monument avenue that there would have been no resentment against the monument from neo-Confederates.- Nick J | ||
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| + | Why haven't as many African Americans protested the absence of the Robinson family at the Manassas Battlefield? -Megan Mc. | ||
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| + | Shackel talks about the struggle to control public memory. What power struggles for the control over the collective public memory have been or will be at play for the 150th Anniversary of the Civil War? -MK | ||
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| + | The McConnell article talks about how alternate, public histories have become accepted as valid. Is this really the case? History as a field seems quite concerned with getting the public to accept more accurate ideas about why the war started and what its implications were. Most historians seem openly hostile to theories on the cause of the war that neglect to include slavery. -GStan. | ||
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| + | Discussion topics for tomorrow Confederate History and Heritage month, the League of the South, Neo Confederate movement and the Southern party. The way we remember historical monuments. The Lost Cause and Subverting the official History. Logan T | ||
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| + | I think tomorrow is a good day to sum up the semester and all the conclusions that we can drawl from our discussions. Are there only two schools on how the Civil War should be remembered? How has Civil War memory changed over the years? From what we learned from the class how do we think the Civil War will be remembered in the future? Logan T | ||
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| + | What are the pros and cons of master narratives vs. narratives that might focus on one particular aspect of the Civil War? Which do you think is better? –Megan Mc. | ||
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| + | Is McConnell's argument that Politics played the primary role in Civil War memory still valid, or is that only true for the guilded age(which is what he was referring to)? Throughout the course it has seemed that most of the arguments about the civil war are indeed steeped in politics of one sort or another, however, does politics still play the main role in determining Civil War memory? - AJ | ||
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| + | The whole idea of Popular memory as history and whether or not Historians have the right to impose their own version of history that they've researched is messy and complicated, even though we've been studying it all semester. At what point do you think it becomes necessary for historians to impose a "true" version of the history in comparison to popular memory? Or is it simply a game of tug of war between both sides, vying for which version is "true". - AJ | ||
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| + | How do we reconcile multiple meanings and ways of remembering conflict, especially when they are so glaringly different from one another?- DR | ||
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| + | With the sesquicentennial, what stories will be told that we haven't heard before? Will we finally get the "Draft Dodger's Civil War," as McConnell suggests?- DR | ||
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| + | I definitely agree with what Angie commented on regarding public spaces as reflective of the mood of the country at the time of creation/changes etc. But on the flip side of what she was saying, I think it's also important to note the creation/changes by those not in power. Could the establishment of a monument have been in opposition of those in power. In a sense, it's still a statement of who is controlling the atmosphere at the time, but it would be interesting to see how people react. Do they retreat or do they retaliate? - Victoria Y. | ||
