Remembering the Revolution: Memory, History, and Nation Making from Independence to the Civil War (Public History in Historical Perspective)

by Michael A. McDonnell, W. Fitzhugh Brundage (Editor), Frances M. Clarke (Editor), Clare Corbould (Editor)

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In today s United States, the legacy of the American Revolution looms large. From presidential speeches to bestselling biographies, from conservative politics to school pageants, everybody knows something about the Revolution. Yet what was a messy, protracted, divisive, and destructive war has calcified into a glorified founding moment of the American nation. Disparate events with equally diverse participants have been reduced to a few key scenes and characters, presided over by well-meaning show more and wise old men. Recollections of the Revolution did not always take today s form. In this lively collection of essays, historians and literary scholars consider how the first three generations of American citizens interpreted their nation s origins. The volume introduces readers to a host of individuals and groups both well known and obscure, from Molly Pitcher and forgotten father John Dickinson to African American Baptists in Georgia and antebellum pacifists. They show how the memory of the Revolution became politicized early in the nation s history, as different interests sought to harness its meaning for their own ends. No single faction succeeded, and at the outbreak of the Civil War the American people remained divided over how to remember the Revolution. show less

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Author Information

Michael A. McDonnell

3 Works 219 Members

W. Fitzhugh Brundage

Editor

13+ Works 409 Members

W. Fitzhugh Brundage is William B. Umstead Professor of History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He received a Guggenheim Fellowship for his work on torture in American history and has written extensively on racial inequality and violence, from segregation to lynching.

Frances M. Clarke

Editor

3 Works 52 Members

Clare Corbould

Editor

2 Works 21 Members