Cultures. Most of you know this, but memorials are always shaped by politics. Reflectrary concerns that. This is especially true of National Historic sites. Federal officials have long viewed commemoration as a kind of patriotic all to me, as a way of conjuring unity from divisiveness by appealing to shared perceptions of the past. Good as a getss for civil war content. Im kidding. President example, lincolns first inaugural address. The president suggested that if americans would pay heed to open court the mystic chords of memory stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hard stone across this land, those courts would once again swell the force of the union. Sites around the United States, sentiments like president lincolns, sentiments that have been an abiding faith of the nationalizing power of public memory are carved into stone. These monuments are supposed to serve the nations interest by linking together its peoples and legitimating federal au
1970s and he found when he created the layout that you see rings with the time telling a chronological story, he kind of painted himself into a corner because how do you end it. Where does it end . Of course, it does not and anywhere. Time keeps marching on. States history keeps going on. That is one more reason why in the back of the museum there are pictures of things like the moonwalk in the atomic bomb and all those kinds of things, to show that history did not stop. Thing that was what to do with the back wall. It was his wife who came up with the solution to that problem. They found they could commemorate the lewis and clark trail and it is still there today. Leaving this now to return to our live coverage of the civil war conference in gettysburg, pennsylvania. Very happy to have him. He is at penn state where he will be at the Civil War Center as a professor of civil war studies. He does a range of subject matter in classrooms, civil war reconstruction as well as environmental
Memorials are almost always shaped by politics. Contemporary concerns how history is presented. Memorial designers look to be present and future as well as the past when they do their work. This is especially true of National Historic sites. Federal officials have long viewed memorials as a kind of patriotic alchemy. Getsis about as good as it forcible where content civil war content. [laughter] im kidding. You can take for example president lincolns first inaugural arrest. He said if americans would pay grave to every art stone across this broad land, those chords would once again swell the union. Sites throughout the United States, there is a sentiment in the abiding power of public memory cards into the stone. These monuments are supposed to serve the nation from interest by linking together its peoples and also legitimating federal authority. Common past, the theory goes, americans will continue to forge, and identities. Memories of sand creek, the speaker suggested, would play thi