historical memory 
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SOURCE: Public Books
3/29/2022
Can the Past be Repaired?
by Sophie Gonick
Menachem Kaiser's memoir of attempts to reclaim a Polish building lost by his Jewish grandfather during World War II raises questions about the right to property as parts of historical memory, and the problematic aspects of seeking reparation through restoration of ownership.
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1/9/2022
One if by Land, Two if by Sea, and Three if by the Capitol Steps
by Elise Lemire
On the first anniversary of the Capitol attack, and the 162nd of Longfellow's poetic canonization of the Boston patriot, Paul Revere's ride remains a contested and protean symbol for a nation in crisis.
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10/24/2021
Flying the Confederate Battle Flag in the North is a Special Sort of Disgrace
by Daniel Koch
Upstate New York was once the most pro-Lincoln and anti-slavery part of the Union. The growing presence of Confederate symbols there insults the region's history and contributions paid in blood for freedom.
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9/12/2021
9/11's Memorials and the Politics of Historical Memory
by Marita Sturken
Major 9/11 memorials try to fix the public memory on a moment of national unity that, 20 years later, seems illusory. Other memorials point the way to using the force of memory to encourage critical reflection on nationalism.
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SOURCE: New York Magazine
8/26/2021
New Documentary Examines the Politics that Have Undermined the 9/11 Museum
by David Klion
A new documentary chronicles the personal conflicts behind the scenes of the 9/11 museum, but asks pointed questions about whether the museum supports deeper public understanding of the attacks and their aftermath.
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SOURCE: Washington Post
6/3/2021
Germany Faced its Horrible Past. Can the US Do the Same?
by Michele Norris
"A full accounting of slavery is one of terror and trauma, and for decades the natural inclination was to ask, why would anyone want to claim that history?... What happens if we don’t?" Michele Norris's essay features University of Texas historian Daina Ramey Berry.
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SOURCE: Baptist News
5/18/2021
What to Do if You Unearth a History of Slavery in Your Church, College or Institution?
Many church denominations and denominational institutions like colleges and universities have been pushed to reckon with their past involvement in slavery and consider what obligations that confers on them in the present.
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SOURCE: Journal of the History of Ideas
10/7/2020
With a Touch of Wisdom: Human Rights, Memory, and Forgetting
by Antoon de Baets
A historian concerned with memory, censorship and human rights considers whether there is an affirmative duty for historians to promote the memory of crimes and atrocities.
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2/7/2021
To Save Democracy, We Need Historical Memory to be "Hot"
by Shannon Bontrager
Historical memory can run hot or cold; hot memory, when we make ourselves vulnerable to the pain of the past, is a force that will ensure America doesn't just move on from the needless death of the COVID pandemic or the violence of the Capitol insurrection without committing to justice and accountability.
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SOURCE: Charleston Post and Courier
12/20/2020
Review: New Book Seeks To Differentiate Between Confederate History And Historical Memory
"Adam Domby’s book provides a helpful guide through White Southern memory, a place where the Civil War never really ended."
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SOURCE: New York Times
9/2/2020
We Are Still Living the Legacy of World War II
by Tom Hanks
The actor Tom Hanks reflects on the false narrative of closure of World War II. The forces unleashed by war and the struggle to reshape the world resonate today.
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8/16/2020
Who Shaped the Story of Hiroshima and Nagasaki?
by William Johnston
Most Americans' knowledge of Hiroshima and Nagasaki reflects how American leaders in 1945 wanted the atomic bombings remembered more than their real history.
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SOURCE: New York Times
8/13/2020
How History Turns Riots Into Tea Parties
by Stacy Schiff
For years Boston hesitated to erect a monument to the rabble-rousers of 1770. We do not care for the revolutionary spirit to survive the revolution. The revolution, however, goes nowhere without it.
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SOURCE: The New Yorker
7/6/2020
How to Confront a Racist National History
by Isaac Chotiner
"But we have to acknowledge that we’re not upholding history, we’re upholding values, and those are not the values that we want in the twenty-first century."
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SOURCE: USA Today
7/6/2020
As Divisions Threaten America, The Pressure To Cancel Presidents Is Dangerous
Any hint of admiration for Lee means automatic cancellation these days but in the mid-20th century, it was ordinary and accepted.
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7/3/2020
While Monuments are Being Removed, a Historian Asks Questions
by Andrew Joseph Pegoda
People have a right to walk around their neighborhood park without being terrorized by iconography devoted to people who denied their ancestors human rights.
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SOURCE: The New Republic
6/30/2020
The Confederates Loved America, and They’re Still Defining What Patriotism Means
by Richard Kreitner
For most of U.S. history, patriotism and white supremacy, the values supposedly embodied by the two flags, have hardly been at odds. Rather, they have been mutually constitutive and disturbingly aligned.
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SOURCE: KCRW
6/24/2020
Who Owns History? New Book Reconsiders San Gabriel Valley’s Pioneer Past
The local history project East of East seeks to amplify the histories of people of color in El Monte, CA.
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SOURCE: San Jose Mercury-News
6/17/2020
2 Berkeley Elementary Schools, Washington and Jefferson, to be Renamed in Response to Black Lives Matter Push
Two San Francisco Bay Area schools named for founding fathers who were slaveholders will get new names following a push by Black Lives Matter activists, according to a newspaper report.
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SOURCE: Philadelphia Inquirer
6/18/2020
Racist Statues Belong in Museums, not Storage, to Force Us to Face History
by Jonathan Zimmerman
The City of Philadelphia shouldn't miss an opportunity to truly make the recently-removed statue of former mayor Frank Rizzo an educational tool. Hiding it in storage won't help Philadelphians learn or heal.