Nation and Commemoration
Nation and Commemoration
What do people think when they imagine themselves as part of a nation? Nation and Commemoration answers this question in an exploration of the creation and recreation of national identities through commemorative activities. Extending recent work in cultural sociology and history, Lyn Spillman compares centennial and bicentennial celebrations in the United States and Australia to show how national identities can emerge from processes of 'cultural production'. She systematically analyses the symbols and meanings of national identity in these two 'new nations', identifying changes and continuities, similarities and differences in how visions of history, place in the world, politics, land, and diversity have been used to express nationhood. The result is a deeper understanding, not only of American and Australian national identities, but also of the global process of nation-formation.
- Only full comparative study of Australian and American national celebrations available
- Offers historical, cultural and global perspectives on nationalism, more usually studied in its contemporary guise
- Combines public and political with more personal, cultural elements in peoples' understanding of who they are in nation terms
Product details
February 1997Paperback
9780521574327
268 pages
228 × 153 × 15 mm
0.367kg
1 table
Available
Table of Contents
- 1. Comparing national identities
- 2. 'Every-one admits that commemorations have their uses': producing national identities in celebration
- 3. 'Our country by the world received': centennial celebrations in 1876 and 1888
- 4. 'To remind ourselves that we are a united nation': bicentennial celebrations in 1976 and 1988
- 5. Making nations meaningful in the United States and Australia.
