Download or read book America s Public Holidays 1865 1920 written by Ellen M. Litwicki and published by Smithsonian Institution. This book was released on 2013-08-06 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the revered Memorial Day to the forgotten Lasties Day, America's Public Holidays is a timely and thoughtful analysis of how the civic culture of America has been fashioned. By analyzing how holidays became a forum for expressing patriotism, how public tradition has been invented, and how the definition of America itself was changed, Ellen Litwicki tells the intriguing story of the elite effort to create new holidays and the variety of responses from ordinary Americans.

Download or read book American Holy Days Second Edition written by Boardman W. Kathan and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2023-11-30 with total page 201 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Our national holidays have been trivialized by merchandising, consumerism, and long weekends. What do you know about the origins of the national holidays of the United States? Boardman Kathan presents the persons and events that each of our “holy days” commemorates. In so doing he explores the shaping of American history and identity, revealing often-misunderstood parts of our national story from a new approach. Each chapter looks at the many books and research written about the events commemorated by these holidays, showing their relevance for today. Kathan includes discussion of the spiritual or religious dimensions of these national observances, pointing out that although the United States was not founded as a “Christian nation” on biblical principles, people throughout American history have perceived a divine guidance—or what George Washington called “providential care.” This book reflects back on the original meaning of these days and seeks to inspire renewed forms of celebration, commemoration, and observance. Celebrating patriotic holidays can bring us together as a people, especially in times of stress and conflict. Schools, religious institutions, patriotic organizations, readers interested in history, in short the general public, will find this an enjoyable aid for recalling our history, reclaiming our values and traditions, and restoring a sense of community.

Download or read book America s Forgotten Holiday written by Donna T. Haverty-Stacke and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2009 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Though now a largely forgotten holiday in the United States, May Day was founded here in 1886 by an energized labor movement as a part of its struggle for the eight-hour day. In ensuing years, May Day took on new meaning, and by the early 1900s had become an annual rallying point for anarchists, socialists, and communists around the world. Yet American workers and radicals also used May Day to advance alternative definitions of what it meant to be an American and what America should be as a nation. Mining contemporary newspapers, party and union records, oral histories, photographs, and rare film footage, America’s Forgotten Holiday explains how May Days celebrants, through their colorful parades and mass meetings, both contributed to the construction of their own radical American identities and publicized alternative social and political models for the nation. This fascinating story of May Day in America reveals how many contours of American nationalism developed in dialogue with political radicals and workers, and uncovers the cultural history of those who considered themselves both patriotic and dissenting Americans.

Download or read book Jim Crow Capital written by Mary-Elizabeth B. Murphy and published by UNC Press Books. This book was released on 2018-09-28 with total page 293 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Local policy in the nation's capital has always influenced national politics. During Reconstruction, black Washingtonians were first to exercise their new franchise. But when congressmen abolished local governance in the 1870s, they set the precedent for southern disfranchisement. In the aftermath of this process, memories of voting and citizenship rights inspired a new generation of Washingtonians to restore local government in their city and lay the foundation for black equality across the nation. And women were at the forefront of this effort. Here Mary-Elizabeth B. Murphy tells the story of how African American women in D.C. transformed civil rights politics in their freedom struggles between 1920 and 1945. Even though no resident of the nation's capital could vote, black women seized on their conspicuous location to testify in Congress, lobby politicians, and stage protests to secure racial justice, both in Washington and across the nation. Women crafted a broad vision of citizenship rights that put economic justice, physical safety, and legal equality at the forefront of their political campaigns. Black women's civil rights tactics and victories in Washington, D.C., shaped the national postwar black freedom struggle in ways that still resonate today.

Download or read book Commemoration in America written by David Gobel and published by University of Virginia Press. This book was released on 2013-09-03 with total page 483 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Commemoration lies at the poetic, historiographic, and social heart of human community. It is how societies define themselves and is central to the institution of the city. Addressing the complex ways that monuments in the United States have been imagined, created, and perceived from the colonial period to the present, Commemoration in America is a wide-ranging volume that focuses on the role of remembrance and memorialization in American urban life. The volume’s contributors are drawn from a spectrum of disciplines—social and urban history, urban planning, architecture, art history, preservation, and architectural history—and take a broad view of commemoration. In addition to the making of traditional monuments, the essays explore such commemorative acts as building preservation, biography, portraiture, ritual performance, street naming, and the planting of trees. Providing an overview of American memorialization and the impulses behind it, Commemoration in America emphasizes a universal tendency for individuals and groups to use monuments to define their contemporary social identity and to construct historical narratives. The volume shows that while commemorative acts and objects affect the community in fundamental ways, their meaning is always multivalent and conflicted, attesting to both triumphs and tragedies. Constituting a vital part of both individual and national identity, commemoration’s contradictions strike at the core of American identity and speak to the importance of remembrance in the construction of our diverse national cultural landscape. Contributors: Jhennifer A. Amundson, Judson University * Catherine W. Bishir, North Carolina State University Libraries * Thomas J. Campanella, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill * Glenn T. Eskew, Georgia State University * Glenn Forley, Parsons / The New School for Design * Sally Greene, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill * Alison K. Hoagland, Michigan Technological University * Lynne Horiuchi, University of California, Berkeley * Ellen M. Litwicki, SUNY Fredonia * David Lowenthal, University College London * Mark A. Peterson, University of California, Berkeley * Richard M. Sommer, University of Toronto * Dell Upton, University of California, Los Angeles

Download or read book The Life and Traditions of the Red Man written by Joseph Nicolar and published by Duke University Press. This book was released on 2007-02-28 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: DIVLargely unknown and uncirculated, this is the only 19-century book-length work in English by a member of the eastern, Algonquian speaking people. Published in 1893, Joseph Nicolar, elder and leader of the Penobscot nation, eloquently tells the story of t/div

Download or read book The A to Z of the Progressive Era written by Peter C. Holloran and published by Scarecrow Press. This book was released on 2009-09-24 with total page 696 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Progressive Era, the period in the United States between 1898 and 1917, was a time of great social, political, and industrial change. Following the Spanish-American War of 1898, an event that signaled the emergence of the United States as a great power, the country soon was involved in its first overseas guerrilla war, in the Philippines. Vast changes in communications and transportation, immigration and migration patterns, social mores, gender roles, family structure, class structure, work patterns, business methods, education, intellectual life, religion, the professions, technology, science, medicine, and much else were transforming the scope and feel of people's lives and relationships. In many ways what happened in this era set the agenda for the rest of the 20th century. The A to Z of the Progressive Era is the most comprehensive and coherent reference work on the Progressive Era. Through its chronology, introductory essay, bibliography, appendixes, and hundreds of cross-referenced dictionary entries on the key events, people, organizations, and ideas of the period, this resource is a lively, complete, and accessible overview of this significant era.

Download or read book Mexican National Identity written by William H. Beezley and published by University of Arizona Press. This book was released on 2008-05-29 with total page 222 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this enlightening book, the well-known historian William Beezley contends that a Mexican national identity was forged during the nineteenth century not by a self-anointed elite but rather by a disparate mix of ordinary people and everyday events. In examining independence festivals, childrenÕs games, annual almanacs, and the performances of itinerant puppet theaters, Beezley argues that these seemingly unrelated and commonplace occurrencesÑnot the far more self-conscious and organized efforts of politicians, teachers, and othersÑcreated a far-reaching sense of a new nation. In the century that followed MexicoÕs independence from Spain in 1821, Beezley maintains, sentiments of nationality were promulgated by people who were concerned not with the promotion of nationalism but with something far more immediateÑthe need to earn a living. These peddlers, vendors, actors, artisans, writers, publishers, and puppeteers sought widespread popular appeal so that they could earn money. According to Beezley, they constantly refined their performances, as well as the symbols and images they employed, in order to secure larger revenues. Gradually they discovered the stories, acts, and products that attracted the largest numbers of paying customers. As Beezley convincingly asserts, out of Òwhat sold to the massesÓ a collective national identity slowly emerged. Mexican National Identity makes an important contribution to the growing body of literature that explores the influences of popular culture on issues of national identity. By looking at identity as it was fashioned Òin the streets,Ó it opens new avenues for exploring identity formation more generally, not just in Mexico and Latin American countries but in every nation. Check out the New Books in History Interview with Bill Beezley!

Download or read book Encyclopedia of American Folklore written by Linda Watts and published by Infobase Holdings, Inc. This book was released on 2020-07-01 with total page 462 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Folklore has been described as the unwritten literature of a culture: its songs, stories, sayings, games, rituals, beliefs, and ways of life. Encyclopedia of American Folklore helps readers explore topics, terms, themes, figures, and issues related to this popular subject. This comprehensive reference guide addresses the needs of multiple audiences, including high school, college, and public libraries, archive and museum collections, storytellers, and independent researchers. Its content and organization correspond to the ways educators integrate folklore within literacy and wider learning objectives for language arts and cultural studies at the secondary level. This well-rounded resource connects United States folk forms with their cultural origin, historical context, and social function. Appendixes include a bibliography, a category index, and a discussion of starting points for researching American folklore. References and bibliographic material throughout the text highlight recently published and commonly available materials for further study. Coverage includes: Folk heroes and legendary figures, including Paul Bunyan and Yankee Doodle Fables, fairy tales, and myths often featured in American folklore, including "Little Red Riding Hood" and "The Princess and the Pea" American authors who have added to or modified folklore traditions, including Washington Irving Historical events that gave rise to folklore, including the civil rights movement and the Revolutionary War Terms in folklore studies, such as fieldwork and the folklife movement Holidays and observances, such as Christmas and Kwanzaa Topics related to folklore in everyday life, such as sports folklore and courtship/dating folklore Folklore related to cultural groups, such as Appalachian folklore and African-American folklore and more.

Download or read book Kwanzaa written by Keith A. Mayes and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2009-09-10 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Kwanzaa: Black Power and the Making of the African-American Holiday Tradition explores the beginning and expansion of Kwanzaa, from its start as a Black Power holiday, to its place as one of the most mainstream black holiday traditions.

Download or read book Remixing the Civil War written by Thomas J. Brown and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2011-11-15 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1961, the historian and poet Robert Penn Warren remarked that “the Civil War is, for the American imagination, the great single event of our history.” This volume reconsiders whether, fifty years later, Warren’s claim still holds true. Essays from specialists in art, literature, and history examine how contemporary culture represents and interprets the Civil War. They look at the works of more than thirty artists and writers as well as multiple movements—political and social—to reveal the many and provocative ways in which Americans engage the Civil War today. The book includes chapters on the place of Abraham Lincoln in Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, controversies over the symbolism of the Confederate flag, and the proliferation of "Juneteenth" observances. Remixing the Civil War pays special attention to the works of African Americans and white southerners, for whom the Civil War was a revolutionary and defining moment. Such prominent scholars as Robert H. Brinkmeyer Jr., W. Fitzhugh Brundage, Kirk Savage, and Elizabeth Young explore the works of major artists and lesser-known figures, including Bobbie Ann Mason, Kara Walker, Dario Robleto, and John Huddleston. The authors find that Americans today openly and playfully manipulate familiar images of the Civil War to explore the malleability and permeability of traditional social categories like national identity, gender, and race. This collection continues the conversation Warren began fifty years ago, although taking it in unorthodox and challenging directions, to offer fresh and stimulating perspectives on the war’s presence in the collective imagination of the nation.

Download or read book Grand Army of Labor written by Matthew E. Stanley and published by University of Illinois Press. This book was released on 2021-04-13 with total page 448 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Enlisting memory in a new fight for freedom From the Gilded Age through the Progressive era, labor movements reinterpreted Abraham Lincoln as a liberator of working people while workers equated activism with their own service fighting for freedom during the war. Matthew E. Stanley explores the wide-ranging meanings and diverse imagery used by Civil War veterans within the sprawling radical politics of the time. As he shows, a rich world of rituals, songs, speeches, and newspapers emerged among the many strains of working class cultural politics within the labor movement. Yet tensions arose even among allies. Some people rooted Civil War commemoration in nationalism and reform, and in time, these conservative currents marginalized radical workers who tied their remembering to revolution, internationalism, and socialism. An original consideration of meaning and memory, Grand Army of Labor reveals the complex ways workers drew on themes of emancipation and equality in the long battle for workers’ rights.

Download or read book History Lessons written by Beth S. Wenger and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2021-06-08 with total page 358 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Most American Jews today will probably tell you that Judaism is inherently democratic and that Jewish and American cultures share the same core beliefs and values. But in fact, Jewish tradition and American culture did not converge seamlessly. Rather, it was American Jews themselves who consciously created this idea of an American Jewish heritage and cemented it in the popular imagination during the late nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries. History Lessons is the first book to examine how Jews in the United States collectively wove themselves into the narratives of the nation, and came to view the American Jewish experience as a unique chapter in Jewish history. Beth Wenger shows how American Jews celebrated civic holidays like Thanksgiving and the Fourth of July in synagogues and Jewish community organizations, and how they sought to commemorate Jewish cultural contributions and patriotism, often tracing their roots to the nation's founding. She looks at Jewish children's literature used to teach lessons about American Jewish heritage and values, which portrayed--and sometimes embellished--the accomplishments of heroic figures in American Jewish history. Wenger also traces how Jews often disagreed about how properly to represent these figures, focusing on the struggle over the legacy of the Jewish Revolutionary hero Haym Salomon. History Lessons demonstrates how American Jews fashioned a collective heritage that fused their Jewish past with their American present and future.

Download or read book Encyclopedia of American Folklife written by Simon J Bronner and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-03-04 with total page 2856 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: American folklife is steeped in world cultures, or invented as new culture, always evolving, yet often practiced as it was created many years or even centuries ago. This fascinating encyclopedia explores the rich and varied cultural traditions of folklife in America - from barn raisings to the Internet, tattoos, and Zydeco - through expressions that include ritual, custom, crafts, architecture, food, clothing, and art. Featuring more than 350 A-Z entries, "Encyclopedia of American Folklife" is wide-ranging and inclusive. Entries cover major cities and urban centers; new and established immigrant groups as well as native Americans; American territories, such as Guam and Samoa; major issues, such as education and intellectual property; and expressions of material culture, such as homes, dress, food, and crafts. This encyclopedia covers notable folklife areas as well as general regional categories. It addresses religious groups (reflecting diversity within groups such as the Amish and the Jews), age groups (both old age and youth gangs), and contemporary folk groups (skateboarders and psychobillies) - placing all of them in the vivid tapestry of folklife in America. In addition, this resource offers useful insights on folklife concepts through entries such as "community and group" and "tradition and culture." The set also features complete indexes in each volume, as well as a bibliography for further research.

Download or read book Unequal Freedoms written by Jeff Strickland and published by University Press of Florida. This book was released on 2015-09-08 with total page 409 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the latter half of the nineteenth century, German and Irish immigrants were as central to the development of the political economy of Charleston, South Carolina, as white southerners and African Americans. As artisans and entrepreneurs, foreigners occupied a middle tier in the racial and ethnic hierarchy of the South’s most economically and politically important city. As agents of change, they provided a buffer, alleviating tensions between the castes until assimilating after emancipation and, in many instances, effectively embracing white supremacy. In Unequal Freedoms, Jeff Strickland examines the complex interplay of race, ethnicity, and class to reveal the pivotal ways in which European immigrants influenced the social, economic, and political development of the South.

Download or read book Kwanzaa written by Molly Aloian and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2009 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Kwanzaa is an African American holiday celebrated from December 26 to January 1, while celebrating Kwanzaa people eat delicious foods, wear special clothes, sing, dance, and celebrate their ancestors.

Download or read book Pole Raising and Speech Making written by Jennifer Eastman Attebery and published by University Press of Colorado. This book was released on 2015-11-01 with total page 197 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Pole Raising and Speech Making, author Jennifer Eastman Attebery focuses on the beginnings of the traditional Scandinavian Midsummer celebration and the surrounding spring-to-summer seasonal festivities in the Rocky Mountain West during the height of Swedish immigration to the area—1880–1917. Combining research in folkloristics and history, Attebery explores various ways that immigrants blended traditional Swedish Midsummer-related celebrations with local civic celebrations of American Independence Day on July 4 and the Mormons’ Pioneer Day on July 24. Functioning as multimodal observances with multiple meanings, these holidays represent and reconsider ethnicity and panethnicity, sacred and secular relationships, and the rural and the urban, demonstrating how flexible and complex traditional celebrations can be. Providing a wealth of detail and information surrounding little-studied celebrations and valuable archival and published primary sources—diaries, letters, speeches, newspaper reports, and images—Pole Raising and Speech Making is proof that non-English immigrant culture must be included when discussing “American” culture. It will be of interest to scholars and graduate students in ethnic studies, folklore, ritual and festival studies, and Scandinavian American cultural history.