Remembering Memory: A Challenge for Public Historians in a Post-National Era

Reviews David Glassberg's 'American Historical Pageantry: The Use of Tradition in the Early Twentieth Century' (1990), John Bodnar's 'Remaking America: Public Memory, Commemoration, and Patriotism in the Twentieth Century' (1992), William M. Johnston's 'Celebrations: The Cult of Anniversaries in Europe and the United States Today' (1991), and Michael Kammen's 'Mystic Chords of Memory: The Transformation of Tradition in American Culture' (1992), which in varying degrees discuss an American national memory that arose after the Civil War in response to social and economic changes and lasted until after the 1960's, when the globalization of capital and vast movements of people and resources displaced the nation as the basic unit of economic and political organization.