Nation Into State by Wilbur Zelinsky

Author:Wilbur Zelinsky [Zelinsky, Wilbur]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, United States, General
ISBN: 9781469610313
Google: 4Qk1DgAAQBAJ
Publisher: UNC Press Books
Published: 2017-03-01T03:18:51+00:00

NATIONALISTIC MONUMENTS

Monuments and memorials of varied form abound in the United States as they do in many other parts of the world. But here they are especially interesting by virtue of sheer numbers and the fact that so many are nationalistic in intent or effect. Furthermore, an exceptionally large share of these nationalistic items originated through local or private efforts, not by governmental decree, and thus are authentic expressions of nationhood.

The simplest way to define a “monument” is to identify it as any object whose sole function at present is to celebrate or perpetuate the memory of particular events, ideals, individuals, or groups of persons—especially those “excellences worthy of permanence” (Friedlander, 1976:epilogue). (Monuments are also usually, but not always, visually obtrusive.) So defined, the concept may embrace tens of millions of gravestones and many other items of purely local meaning. But our concern is limited to those monuments that honor some element of the nationalistic credo, and, to make matters simpler, those that are freestanding outdoor constructions. The most characteristic examples are in the form of statuary, obelisks, columns, towers, arches, cairns, special templelike edifices, and such relics of military glory as tanks, cannon, naval vessels, anchors, aircraft, and rockets. Although they may be much less conspicuous, we may also admit to this category many of the historical markers that line our higways (L. V. Coleman, 1933:83-84; Lenggenhager, 1967-70; Pisney, 1977).

The concept of the monument is, of course, closely akin to that of the memorial, but there is a critical distinction to be made. The memorial object serves more functions than does the single purpose monument, and almost any kind of item can be pressed into service. Thus we have memorial parks, gardens, forests, bridges, auditoria, stadia, highways, benches, government buildings, and institutions of every description, not to mention the memorializing name that can be attached to anything. If a few items do straddle the line between monuments and memorials, such as the tombs and some birthplaces or homes of presidents and other national notables (C. Jones, 1962; Laird, 1971), for the most part, the division between the two groups is clear and useful.

By their very nature public monuments, of whatever description, verge close to sacredness, not unlike the temples, shrines, and historic landmarks with which they are often associated. Indeed, as Marvin Trachtenberg has so tellingly characterized them, monuments “function as social magnets, crystallizations of social energy, one of the means civilization has devised to reinforce its cohesiveness and to give meaning and structure to life. Monuments are a way men transmit communal emotions, a medium of continuity and interaction between generations, not only in space but across time, for to be monumental is to be permanent” (Trachtenberg, 1976:15). Given the profound implications of the monument for the geographer, historian, anthropologist, and other students of humankind, it is unsettling to discover the meagerness of its literature.7 Neil Harris’s flat statement that “there is no adequate study of American monuments” (N. Harris, 1966:375) applies to the world in general and

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