Memory's nation : the place of Plymouth Rock
"Long celebrated as a symbol of the country's origins, Plymouth Rock no longer receives much national attention. In fact, historians now generally agree that the Pilgrims' storied landing on the Rock never actually took place - the tradition having emerged more than a century after the arrival of the Mayflower." "In Memory's Nation, however, John Seelye is not interested in the factual truth of the landing. He argues that what truly gives Plymouth Rock its significance is more than two centuries of oratorical, literary, and artistic celebrations of the Pilgrims' arrival. Drawing on a wealth of speeches, paintings, and popular illustrations, Seelye demonstrates how Plymouth Rock changed in meaning over the years, beginning as a symbol of freedom evoked in patriotic sermons at the start of the Revolution and eventually becoming a symbol of exclusion during the 1920s." "In a concluding chapter, Seelye notes the continuing popularity of Plymouth Rock as a tourist attraction, affirming that, at least in New England, the Pilgrim advent still has meaning. But as he demonstrates throughout the book, the Rock was from the beginning a regional symbol, associated with New England's attempts to assert its importance as the starting point for what became the American Republic."--Jacket
Print Book, English, ©1998
University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, ©1998
xv, 699 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm
9780807824153, 0807824151
37721380
1. A Boat, a Ship, Some People
2. The Liberty Boys Hoist One for the Forefathers
3. The Federalists Take Their Stand on the Rock
4. Webster and the Rock
5. Wherein Tears are Struck from the Rock
6. Circumferential Matters Relating to the Rock
7. The Great Trinitarian-Unitarian-Congregational Battle over the Ownership of the Pilgrims and Their Rock
8. Concerning Certain Flaws in the Rock
9. The Rock Rolled Back
10. Tabling the Rock
11. Written on the Rock
12. Setting Free the Rock
13. Rock Ballast for the Ship of State
14. Wherein the Rock Becomes a Rolling Stone
15. Carving a Face on the Rock
16. Feminizing the Rock
17. Under the Rock
Something for Bowdoin
18. Cutting a Colossus from the Rock
19. The Rock's Red Glare
20. Brooklyn Nights
Something by Way of Lighter Fare
21. The Stern and Rock-Bound Lodge
22. Wherein the Rock Gets Reconstructed
23. The Pilgrim Fathers, Where Are They?
24. The Rock Impounded
25. The Statue and the Rock