Gettysburg in Rehab
January 28, 2009 |
Place: Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life, Boston College
Bio: John H. Summers is the author of Every Fury on Earth and editor of The Politics of Truth: Selected Writings of C. Wright Mills. Born and raised in Gettysburg, he received his doctorate in history from the University of Rochester in 2006. Abstract: For the last decade the National Park Service has been "rehabilitating" the Gettysburg National Military Park, demolishing buildings, uprooting trees, rebuilding fence lines, in order to return the battlefield to its July 1863 appearance. In the Gettysburg Address, President Lincoln said “we can not dedicate--we can not consecrate--we can not hallow--this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract.” Why then does the land need to be rehabilitated, a process of adding and detracting in the same stroke? This talk will present the past and future of the rehabilitation, casting its politics, morality, economy, and aesthetics in terms of its commemorative history.
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| Location Information |
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Boisi Center |
Boston College
Chestnut Hill, MA 02140 |
| Website:
www.bc.edu/centers/boisi/home.html |
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| Contact Information |
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John Summers |
| Email:
summersj@bc.edu |
| Phone:
617-552-1527 |
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