The History Wars: Problems in Public Memory

Undergraduate

This junior research seminar is an exploration of the interpretive dimensions of the study of "memory" among American historians, as well as in the broad public. Several case studies are examined in depth: the long struggle over Civil War memory and the Lost Cause; how immigration caused bitter debates about school curriculums; anti-Communism and teaching American history; the National History Standards crisis of the 1990s; the Smithsonian conflict over how to commemorate the use of the atomic bomb, also in 1990s; debate over the American Indian Museum in Wash., DC; and debates today over the 1619 Project on slavery and its critics. WR , HU W 9:25am-11:20am