President's Day
News Story
With Presidents Day around the corner, how do we celebrate a president known to have slaves? That’s the sort of question explored by Seth Bruggeman, a history professor and coordinator of the Public History Program at Temple University.
According to Bruggeman, Presidents Day assumes that the nation comes together and celebrates the birth of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln and, theoretically, all presidents. “It presumes we can all share in the legacy of these men equally; however, it is more complicated than that,” he added.
February 9, 2009
News Story
In his book, Here, George Washington Was Born: Memory, Material Culture and the Public History of a National Monument (University of Georgia Press), Seth Bruggeman examines the history of commemoration in the United States by looking closely at the birthplace of George Washington. His analysis demonstrates that there is no single way of remembering an event or person and that by scrutinizing the places where we gather to commemorate the past, such as historical sites and monuments, we can learn about ourselves.
February 2, 2009
