1) Print out book review, "Selective Memory," posted on the web (next to this link) & read it SEVERAL times (use the Merriam-Webster Dictionary link on the web syllabus when necessary).
2) Answer the questions below thoughtfully (please TYPE ALL written assignments) and print them out.
3) Bring the article and your TYPED answers to class.
1) What is the title of the book being reviewed and who is the book’s author?
2) What does the book reviewer, Eric Foner, mean when he writes "In recent
years, the study of historical memory has become something of a scholarly cottage
industry. Rather than being straightforward and unproblematic, it is ''constructed,''
battled over and in many ways political."
3) Blight's central aim is to analyze how the Civil War has been
remembered by the American public.
a) What are the two ways of remembering of the Civil War the author theorizes?
b) How does the author characterize the “reconciliationist” view and what are some examples of how this view was reinforced in public?
c) What was the political purpose that the “reconciliationist” view served?
4) How many African-American soldiers fought for the Union Army? How many Civil
War memorials honor black soldiers?
5) What is the origin of Memorial Day?
6) What does the author mean when he speaks of “invented memories”
and the "romance of reunion"?
7) How do most contemporary historians remember the Civil War?
8) Why is how the Civil War is remembered important?
Interesting Sites:
South Carolina & the Confederate flag