Memorials matter : emotion, environment, and public memory at American historical sites

321 Pages·2019·6.473 MB·English

by  Jennifer K. Ladino

Memorials Matter

Memorials Matter
Emotion, Environment, and Public Memory
at American Historical Sites
JENNIFER K. LADINO
Reno & Las Vegas
University of Nevada Press | Reno, Nevada 89557 USA
www.unpress.nevada.edu
Copyright © 2019 by University of Nevada Press
All rights reserved
Cover art by jericl cat
Cover design by TG Design
All photos are by the author unless otherwise indicated.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Names: Ladino, Jennifer K., author.
Title: Memorials matter : emotion, environment, and public memory at American
historical sites / Jennifer K. Ladino.
Description: Reno ; Las Vegas : University of Nevada Press, [2019] | Includes
bibliographical references. |
Identifiers: LCCN 2018039125 (print) | LCCN 2018041049 (ebook) | ISBN
9781943859986 (ebook) | ISBN 9781943859962 (pbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN
9781943859979 (cloth : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Historic sites--Social aspects--West (U.S.) | Memorials--Social
aspects--West (U.S.) | Monuments--Social aspects--West (U.S.) | Collective
memory--Social aspects--West (U.S.)
Classification: LCC F590.7 (ebook) | LCC F590.7 . L33 2019 (print) | DDC
909--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018039125
The paper used in this book meets the requirements of American National
Standard for Information Sciences — Permanence of Paper for Printed Library
Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (R2002).
FIRST PRINTING
Manufactured in the United States of America
to Doug, with love and gratitude

Contents
Preface xi
Introduction: Feeling Like a Mountain: 1
Scale, Patriotism, and Affective Agency at
Mount Rushmore National Memorial
1. “Fears Made Manifest”: Desert Creatures and 41
Border Anxiety at Coronado National Memorial
2. Placing Historical Trauma: Guilt, Regret, and 82
Compassion at Sand Creek Massacre National
Historic Site
3. Performing Patriotism: Reenactment, Historicity, and 121
Thing- Power at Golden Spike National Historic Site
4. Remembering War in Paradise: Grief, Aloha, and 157
Techno- patriotism at WWII Valor in the
Pacific National Monument
5. Mountains, Monuments, and Other Matter: Reckoning 195
with Racism and Simulating Shame at Manzanar
National Historic Site
6. “We have died. Remember us.”: Fear, Wonder, and 227
Overlooking the Buffalo Soldiers at
Golden Gate National Recreation Area
Postscript: “Going Rogue” with the Alt-N PS: 261
Managing Love and Hate for an
Alternative Anthropocene
Acknowledgments 275
Bibliography 277
Index 287
About the Author 297
vii

Illustrations
I. Peter Norbeck Overlook 5
II. Lincoln on Mount Rushmore 6
1.1. Coronado Peak Overlook 42
1.2. Border Patrol vehicles at Montezuma Pass 49
1.3. Border monument 102 64
2.1. Welcome sign at Sand Creek Massacre NHS 89
2.2. “Why?” display 98
2.3. Memorial plaque at overlook 99
3.1. Reenactment ceremony photo at Golden Spike NHS 126
3.2. Locomotive 119 129
3.3. Orbital ATK from cell phone audio tour 149
4.1. Military equipment on shore at Pearl Harbor 166
4.2. Tourists at USS Arizona Memorial 177
4.3. Techno-patriotism at Pearl Harbor 186
5.1. Reconstructed guard tower at Manzanar NHS 199
5.2. Tourists at latrines 209
5.3. Obelisk and cemetery 214
6.1. WWII Memorial to the Missing 240
6.2. Poetry at the cemetery overlook 244
6.3. View from the cemetery overlook 246
ix