Purpose of memory of the war

Georgia Sixth

2nd Lieutenant
Joined
Dec 14, 2011
Location
Texas
I found this brief exchange on the purpose of memory, both individual and cultural, interesting and would like to share it. I would love to hear how members here think our collective memory of the civil war relates to Peterson's definition. How does it relate to our memory of the war today? And to the first generations after the war?

 
And I forgot to ad....disregard the title of the video post....these things seemed to always overstate things in order to bait clicks.
 
Interesting discussion. How each generation choses to remember an individual or an event reflects as much about that generation as it does about history. Sometimes, as in the example of Washington and the cherry tree, the "history" is made up, but that's not the point. The point was to use GW as the personification of honesty and integrity; virtues that it was felt should be passed on to the next generation.

In the 1950's, Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett personified the ideals of courage, freedom, democracy, and masculinity; values and virtues that reflected the WWII generation. The historians of the 6os and 70s also looked to contemporary events and such things as the Equal Rights Amendment, civil rights, and Native American protests, etc. to look at history from a non-white, non-male perspective. Their interpretations of Boone and Crocket were not so glowing.

The same thing seems to be happening today, not just with how we interpret the symbolism of Confederate monuments, but also with how we consider historical personages: Jackson (both Andrew and Stonewall),Lee, Forrest, Lincoln (was he gay?), Jefferson, Wilson, the list goes on. The pitfall is, of course, that neither the interpretations of the 50s nor the interpretations of today provide a complete portrayal of the person or event. The issue that I think we are all grappling with is not only how we want succeeding generations to remember the Boones and Crockett's, but what is the lesson we want them to learn from Boone and Crockett?
 
Information of actual happening and people involved can be skewed, either purposely or accidentally through History. Hearsay or other stories were the culprit in days gone by. In our modern times we have so much social means to draw on. Unfortunately, there are many agendas that could care less about truth and only self gains for their agenda. A story repeated incorrectly enough times sadly becomes the accepted norm. Only to true in today's world. One example of my point is in reproduced firearm parts with fake markings that are sold as original and having books publish photos to verify the lie.
How one interprets events and people in the Civil War requires research and not to take "The Classic's Illustrated" approach.
 
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