This annotated bibliography supports work in HIST 489, the Senior Seminar in History at NDSU. Students build and revise the bibliography, establishing the base of secondary knowledge for background and interpretation. (Please make all citations Chicago style.)

Books

Bogart, Michele. Public Sculpture and the Civic Ideal in New York City, 1890-1930. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989.

Review by Mark Popp

Creighton, Thomas H. The Architecture of Monuments. New York: Reinhold, 1962.

This book recalls the competition among architects to win the right to build the monument in honor of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. This book would be of interest if a person is researching a monument of architectural significance, as it explains how the two concepts (monuments and architecture) are sometimes combined in the U.S. and other countries.--Tim Haugrud

Davison, Graeme. The Use and Abuse of Australian History. St Leonards: Allen & Unwin, 2000.

Great book! Somebody review it.

Ferguson, Andrew. Land of Lincoln: Adventures in Abe's America. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2007.

Review by Kurt Easterday

Gjerde, Jon. The Minds of the West: Ethnocultural Evolution in the Rural Middle West, 1830-1917. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1997.

Review by Tim Haugrud / Review by Jared Sullivan

Glassberg, David. Sense of History: The Place of the Past in American Life. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2001.

Review by Cassie Ptacek

Maurice Halbwachs. On Collective Memory. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 1992. Pp 244.

Review by Josh Eslinger

Hass, Kristin Ann. Carried to the Wall: American Memory and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998.

Hass writes of the difficulty of memorializing this war because of the controversy. It is unique to other memorials because it does not commemorate a triumph or a part of history Americans are proud of. What most people wanted to remember was not the political ramifications, but the people who died, therefore it becomes an individuated memorial. Making of memorials is a reflection of the relationship between individuals and the nation. Remembering individuals in many increases throughout the twentieth century. Hass notes that the controversy of the war keeps the memory of the dead alive.--Emily Eidsmoe

Somebody review this book!

Hogarth, Andrew, and Kim Vaughan. Battlefields, Monuments, and Markers: A guide to Native American and United States Army Engagements from 1854-1890. Sydney, Australia: A. Hogarth, 1993.

This book is basically a guide to every monument and marker dealing with Native Americans in the American Midwest. There is a short history of the engagement or people each monument or marker is portraying, along with pictures. It also gives directions for reaching these markers. As a side note, this is definitely a source for Sitting Bull's grave, as it addresses both burial sites.--Cassie Ptacek

Hufbauer, Benjamin. Presidential Temples: How Memorials and Libraries Shape Public Memory. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2005.

Review by Kelly Hansen

Kammen, Michael G. Mystic Chords of Memory: The Transformation of Tradition in American Culture. New York: Knopf, 1991.

Review by Emily Eidsmoe

Kimball, Stanley B. Historic Sites and Markers along the Mormon and Other Great Western Trails. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1988.

This book gives brief descriptions of hundreds of historical markers built along the trails all over the U.S., focusing particularly on those built by Mormons. Each entry gives the location, description, and purpose of its specific subject. This book may be used to identify many reasons that might possess people to erect historical markers.--Tim Haugrud

Levinson, Sanford. Written in Stone: Public Monuments in Changing Societies. Durham: Duke University Press, 1998.

Review by Simon Hochstein

Loewen, James W. Lies Across America: What Our Historic Sites Get Wrong. New York: New Press, 1999.

Review by Chris Guler

Lowenthal, David. The Past Is a Foreign Country. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985.

Somebody review this book!

McConnell, Stuart Charles. Glorious Contentment: The Grand Army of the Republic, 1865-1900. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1992.

Review by Matt Spielman

McNeill, William H. Mythistory and Other Essays. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986.

Review by John Andrews

Marling, Karal Ann, and John Wetenhall. Iwo Jima: Monuments, Memories, and the American Hero. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1991.

Review by Curtis Johnson

Metz, Gabriel S. World War Two Memorial: Recuperating Collective Memory. 2002.

World War Two Memorial: Recuperating Collective Memory is actually the senior project of Gabriel Metz, a 2002 Landscape Architecture student at NDSU. This book is the result of his work in planning a hypothetical WWII monument in Washington D.C. This is a really interesting look at the nuts and bolts kind of work that goes into creating a monument. Not only was Metz concerned with location, materials, and the actual building of the monument, but he was also concerned with making it a place that would touch people's emotions, much like the Vietnam Memorial in Washington D.C. It provides an interesting viewpoint that might enrich the understanding of a monument.--Cassie Ptacek

Mills, Cynthia and Pamela H. Simpson. Monuments to the Lost Cause: Women, Art, and the Landscape of Southern Memory. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2003.

Review by Matt Boe

Nora, Pierre. Realms of Memory.

Somebody review this book!

Norkunas, Martha. Monuments and Memory: History and Representation in Lowell, Massachusetts. Washington: Smithsonian University Press, 2002.

Review by Chloe Quirk

Palmer, Bertha Rachel. Beauty Spots in North Dakota. Boston: Gorham Press, 1928.

This book is available at the NDSU Institute for Regional Studies; I found it there while working on my WPA tour research. Part 3, pp. 187-212, is devoted to “Monuments and Memorials.” If you’re researching a North Dakota monument, check it out.

Rea, Tom. Devil's Gate: Owning the Land, Owning the Story. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2006.

Somebody review this book!

Reynolds, Donald M. Monuments and Masterpieces: Histories and Views of Public Sculpture in New York City. New York: Macmillan, 1988.

Review by Linsey Hillmer

Savage, Kirk. Standing Soldiers, Kneeling Slaves: Race, War, and Monuments in Nineteenth-Century America. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997.

Review by Bill Harris

Thomas, Christopher. The Lincoln Memorial and American Life. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2002.

Review by Erin Neal

Winter, Jay. Sites of Memory, Sites of Mourning: The Great War in European Cultural History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995.

Review by Adam Pool

Articles

Burk, Adrienne L. "In Sight, Out of View: A Tale of Three Monuments." Antipode 38 (2006): 41.

Burk, Adrienne explores how monuments that are built for the same purpose can far apart in meaning. All three monuments were built to recognise violence in the community but one was recognise a very public act committed while the other two where to bring light on the disappearance and brutality of women that was not being checked on by the local police. He explains how they were built by different groups for their own purpose and how monuments are a symbol to those who build them and those they are built for.--Adam Pool

Cahalane, Victor H. "A Proposed Great Plains National Monument." Scientific Monthly Vol. 51 (1940): 125-139

This article was very interesting to me, as it dealt with the possible idea of a Great Plains monument in Southwestern South Dakota. While some of the material seems like Walter P. Webb, it does have some good information about how a monument itself could be created, interestingly enough utilizing animals to showcase the terrain. Cahalane also indicated that there was to be no development in the popular sense of the term. However, I found it a little upsetting that he mentions that even though this area would hold great beauty, people would not like to stay there for long periods of time.--Matt Spielman

Collison, Gary. "Remembering Man's Other Best Friend: U.S. Horse Graves and Memorials in Historical Perspective." Markers 22 (2005): 70-107.

This article talks about horse graves throughout the US. There is a heavy emphasis on thoroughbred racing horses and military horses.--Erin Neal

Cross, David F. "A Tale of Two Statues: The William Wells Statues At Gettysburg and Burlington, Vermont." Vermont History 73 (2005): 40-62.

This article described why two identical statues of William Wells were created at Gettysburg and at Burlington, Vermont. Wells is the lowest ranking officer from the Civil War to recieve a statue in his honor, which commemortates his actions at Gettysburg. This is a good article on what Civil War monuments meant to veterans and communities when they were put up.--Matt Boe

Elliott, Cecil D. "Monuments and Monumentality." Journal of Architectural Education Vol. 18, No. 4 (1964): 51-53. (Available in JSTOR)

This is a short article that spoke of the 1960s rebirth of the historical significance of monuments.--Linsey Hillmer

Greuther, Marc. “Persistence of Memory.” Technology and Culture 47 (2006): 566-569.

Somebody check out this article!

Grissom, Carol A., and Ronald S. Harvey. “The Conservation of American War Memorials Made of Zinc.” Journal of the American Institute for Conservation 42 (Spring, 2003): 21-38. (Available in JSTOR)

This article will be helpful with initial information gathering and for ideas on where you could go to hit those original sources we need if your monument is made of zinc. Otherwise it is a short article telling about the different types of old zinc statues, which small towns purchased after the Civil War, and how they need to be preserved. It mentions many ill-fated attempts to save them, which are sad because I could imagine the small town being heart broken after their hero was destroyed in an attempt to preserve it.--Simon Hochstein

Ireland, Brian. "Remembering and Forgetting at the Waikiki War Memorial Park and Natatorium." Hawaiian Journal of History 39 (2005): 53-74.

This article tells the story of the Waikiki War Memorial, and how it's creation distorted the factual reality of what it represents, which is the Hawaiian servicemen who died during World War I. This is a very good description of how the collective memory of a people and what the actual facts show for that memory can differ through a monument.--Matt Boe

Janney, Caroline E. "Written in Stone: Gender, Race, and the Heyward Shepherd Memorial." Civil War History 52 (2006): 117-141.

Somebody check out this article!

"Northampton Local Monuments: Testaments to an Enduring Historical Legacy." Historical Journal of Massachusetts 1 (2005): 57-82.

Somebody check out this article!

Sherman, Daniel J. "Bodies and Names: The Emergence of Commemoration in Interwar France." American Historical Review Vol. 103, No. 2: 443-466

This article discussed how the French began to commemorate their dead. Since the French lost so many men, they felt it was a necessary step to begin doing this.--Matt Spielman

Theriault, Kim Servart. "Re-membering Vietnam: War, Trauma, and 'Scarring Over' After 'The Wall.'" Journal of American Culture 26,4 (2003): 421-432.

This article discusses the phenomenon of the Vietnam War Memorial. It discusses the wall as focusing on a subversive subject while detailing how it came into being. It also examines how it is an active memorial as people visit it to remember comrades, family members, or to connect in some way with our nation's history.--Mark Popp

Theses & Dissertations

Olson, Daron W. “Building a Greater Norway: Emigration and the Creation of National Identities in American and Norway, 1860-1945.” PhD dissertation, Southern Illinois University, 2006.

See abstract in Dissertation Abstracts

Somebody get this dissertation and give us some notes on it!

Rosenior, Derrick Rodney, Ph.D., "Toward Racial Reconciliation: Collective Memory, Myth, and Nostalgia in American Pentecostalism," PhD dissertation, Howard University, 2005.

This dissertation discussed how American Pentecostals relied on not only collective memory but myth and nostalgia toward racial healing. The Pentecostals look back on the collective memory of the Azusa Street Revival of 1906 to bring back racial reconciliation. In doing this they have made the people of this revival an example to for racial healing today. --- Chloe Quirk

Government Documents


Grooms, Thomas B. World War 2 Memorial, Washington, D.C. Arlington: American Battle Monuments Commission; Washington: General Services Administration, 2004.

Begins with the widespread impact of WW II in the US, how people at the time either participated in it or felt it, and then the impact as a whole of the victory and sacrifice. The book then discusses the symbolism of the memorial, how it came to rest between the Washington memorial and Lincoln memorial, and how it was designed and came to fruition.--Emily Eidsmoe

Web Documents

Osborne, Brian S. "Landscapes, Memory, Monuments, and Commemoration: Putting Identity in Its Place." Draft paper, http://canada.metropolis.net/events/ethnocultural/publications/putinden.pdf.

Osborne discusses the roles of monuments in the building of a nation and the defining of a people. He says that monuments are used to connect the people to a place and make them feel at home, binding them to the land. He also pushes the idea that monuments provide for an epistemic approach to the landscape. We know what we know about a certain place because the monument is there. He speaks of monuments largely from a national view and uses examples from a Canadian perspective. This article would be a great resource for anyone researching a monument that was created by a group hoping to express/inspire national pride. It also includes a large bibliography with many references that focus specifically on monuments. --Josh Eslinger

Savage, Kirk. “History, Memory, and Monuments: An Overview of the Scholarly Literature on Commemoration,” National Park Service, http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/resedu/savage.htm.

Savage, author also of a book-length study of war monuments of the 19th century, here summarizes the scholarly literature in a historiographic essay. He notes that “the academic literature on commemoration has mushroomed in the past twenty years, constituting a “memory boom” in the academy. The origins of scholarly interest in collective memory, he notes, are in European literature. American interest along these lines was inspired particularly by the commemoration of the Holocaust and the building of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Savage cites, summarizes, and evaluates a wealth of literature—work that will be invaluable for this seminar. He largely confines his attention to books, without much sense of the article literature.--Tom Isern