Description
Book SynopsisThe role of cultural memory in American identityTerrorism in American Memory argues that the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and all that followed in its wake were the primary force shaping United States politics and culture in the post-9/11 era. Marita Sturken maintains that during the past two decades, when the country was subjected to terrorist attacks and promulgated ongoing wars of aggression, we have veered into increasingly polarized factions and been extraordinarily preoccupied with memorialization and the politics of memory. The post-9/11 era began with a hunger for memorialization and it ended with massive protests over police brutality that demanded the destruction of historical monuments honoring racist historical figures. Sturken argues that memory is both the battleground and the site for negotiations of national identity because it is a field through which the past is experienced in the present. The paradox of these last two decades is that it gave rise to an era of intensely
Trade Review"Revealing debates about how to memorialize the last two decades of enormous social disruption ... from 9/11 to Black Lives Matter ... [This book is] a relevant discussion of what sacredness of space means in terms of education, culture, and economics." * Kirkus Reviews *
"
Marita Sturken’s compelling new book charts a significant shift in how many Americans today
understand national identity and purpose. Terror remains an active component, but activist
memory projects focused on racial terrorism suggest heightened interests in reckoning with
national histories of inequity and injustice.
" * Erika Doss, author of
Memorial Mania: Public Feeling in America *
"
There is no scholar better suited to undertake an analysis of the modes of memorialization in the
post-9/11 era and their relationship to US national identity. In her deft analysis, Sturken
painstakingly articulates the state of memory politics in the contemporary US. This is a must
read for anyone interested in memorial forms and the cultural work they perform.
" * Alison Landsberg, author of
Engaging the Past: Mass Culture and the Production of Historical Knowledge *
"Sturken presents an intriguing and impassioned argument that helps to document through words and images the recent decades of the ‘memory boom'" -- J. K. Dabbs, University of Minnesota--Morris * CHOICE *
