Gettysburg : memory, market, and an American shrine / Jim Weeks.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Weeks, Jim, 1950-2005, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Battlefields--Pennsylvania.

Battlefields.

Gettysburg National Military Park (Pa.).

Pennsylvania--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Monuments.

Pennsylvania.

United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Monuments.

United States.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (284 pages)

Place of Publication:

Princeton, New Jersey ; Oxford : Princeton University Press, [2003]

Summary:

The site of North America's greatest battle is a national icon, a byword for the Civil War, and an American cliché. Described as "the most American place in America," Gettysburg is defended against commercial desecration like no other historic site. Yet even as schoolchildren learn to revere the place where Lincoln delivered his most famous speech, Gettysburg's image generates millions of dollars every year from touring, souvenirs, reenactments, films, games, collecting, and the Internet. Examining Gettysburg's place in American culture, this book finds that the selling of Gettysburg is older than the shrine itself.Gettysburg entered the market not with recent interest in the Civil War nor even with twentieth-century tourism but immediately after the battle. Founded by a modern industrial society with the capacity to deliver uniform images to millions, Gettysburg, from the very beginning, reflected the nation's marketing trends as much as its patriotism. Gettysburg's pilgrims--be they veterans, families on vacation, or Civil War reenactors--have always been modern consumers escaping from the world of work and responsibility even as they commemorate. And it is precisely this commodification of sacred ground, this tension between commerce and commemoration, that animates Gettysburg's popularity.Gettysburg continues to be a current rather than a past event, a site that reveals more about ourselves as Americans than the battle it remembers. Gettysburg is, as it has been since its famous battle, both a cash cow and a revered symbol of our most deeply held values.

Contents:

Phase 1: A genteel summer resort, 1863-1884

A grand and holy work

A stream of pilgrims

Phase 2: A mecca for patriots, 1884-1920

A memorial of the whole struggle

A place for tourists and the oppressed

Phase 3: TV, hot bath, cold war, 1920-1970

"These are touring days": mass culture transform Gettysburg

"Dad got us there is a day": automobiles and family touring

Phase 4: Heritage Gettysburg, 1970-2000

A future in the past

"It's 1863 all over again": heritage tourists

"The most American place in America."

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

Includes index.

ISBN:

9780691144450

0691144451

OCLC:

1255231542