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Georgia State University

Theses/Dissertations

2011

Commemoration

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities

Reconciling Memory: Landscapes, Commemorations, And Enduring Conflicts Of The U.S.-Dakota War Of 1862, Julie A. Anderson Dec 2011

Reconciling Memory: Landscapes, Commemorations, And Enduring Conflicts Of The U.S.-Dakota War Of 1862, Julie A. Anderson

History Dissertations

The U.S.-Dakota War of 1862 resulted in the deaths of more than 500 Minnesota settlers, the expulsion of the Dakota people from their homeland, and the largest mass execution in U.S. history. For more than a century, white Minnesotans declared themselves innocent victims of Indian brutality and actively remembered this war by erecting monuments, preserving historic landscapes, publishing first-person narratives, and hosting anniversary celebrations. However, as the centennial anniversary approached, new awareness for the sufferings of the Dakota both before and after the war prompted retellings of the traditional story that gave the status of victimhood to the Dakota as …


Nationalizing The Dead: The Contested Making Of An American Commemorative Tradition From The Civil War To The Great War, Shannon T. Bontrager Ph.D. May 2011

Nationalizing The Dead: The Contested Making Of An American Commemorative Tradition From The Civil War To The Great War, Shannon T. Bontrager Ph.D.

History Dissertations

In recent years, scholars have emphasized the importance of collective memory in the making of national identity. Where does death fit into the collective memory of American identity, particularly in the economic and social chaos of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries? How did death shape the collective memory of American national identity in the midst of a pluralism brought on by immigration, civil and labor rights, and a transforming culture? On the one hand, the commemorations of public figures such as Ulysses S. Grant, William McKinley, and Theodore Roosevelt constructed an identity based on Anglo-Saxonism, American imperialism, and …