Interpreting sacred ground : the rhetoric of national Civil War parks and battlefields

Resource Information

The work Interpreting sacred ground : the rhetoric of national Civil War parks and battlefields represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in European University Institute. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Language Material, Books.

Label

Interpreting sacred ground : the rhetoric of national Civil War parks and battlefields

Title remainder

the rhetoric of national Civil War parks and battlefields

Statement of responsibility

J. Christian Spielvogel

Creator

• Spielvogel, J. Christian, (John Christian), 1969-

Subject

• United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Battlefields | Study and teaching
• United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Study and teaching
• United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Battlefields | Conservation and restoration
• United States, National Park Service
• United States -- Race relations | History -- 19th century

Language

eng

Summary

"'Interpreting sacred ground' is a rhetorical analysis of Civil War battlefields and parks, and the ways various commemorative traditions--and their ideologies of race, reconciliation, emancipation, and masculinity--compete for dominance. The National Park Service (NPS) is known for its role in the preservation of public sites deemed to have historic, cultural, and natural significance. In 'Interpreting sacred ground', J. Christian Spielvogel studies the NPS's secondary role as an interpreter or creator of meaning at such sites, specifically Gettysburg National Military Park, Harpers Ferry National Historical Park, and Cold Harbor Visitor Center. Spielvogel studies in detail the museums, films, publications, tours, signage, and other media at these sites, and he studies and analyzes how they shape the meanings that visitors are invited to construct. Though the NPS began developing interpretive exhibits in the 1990s that highlighted slavery and emancipation as central facets to understanding the war, Spielvogel argues that the NPS in some instances preserves outmoded narratives of white reconciliation and heroic masculinity, obscuring the race-related causes and consequences of the war as well as the war's savagery. The challenges the NPS faces in addressing these issues are many, from avoiding unbalanced criticism of either the Union or the Confederacy, to foregrounding race and violence as central issues, preserving clear and accurate renderingsof battlefield movements and strategies, and contending with the various public constituencies with their own interpretive stakes in the battle for public memory. Spielvogel concludes by arguing for the National Park Service's crucial role as a critical voice in shaping twentieth-first-century Civil War public memory and highlights the issues the agency faces as it strives to maintain historical integrity while contending with antiquated renderings of the past"--provided by publisher

Member of

• Rhetoric, culture, and social critique

Cataloging source

DLC

Government publication

government publication of a state province territory dependency etc

Illustrations

illustrations

Index

index present

Literary form

non fiction

Nature of contents

bibliography

Series statement

Rhetoric, culture, and social critique