Description
Book SynopsisThe 2002 revelation that George Washington kept slaves in his executive mansion at Philadelphia's Independence National Historical Park in the 1790s prompted an eight-year controversy about the role of slavery in America's commemorative landscape. When the President's House installation opened in 2010, it became the first federal property to feature a slave memorial. In Upon the Ruins of Liberty, Roger Aden offers a compelling account that explores the development of this important historic site and how history, space, and public memory intersected with contemporary racial politics. Aden constructs this engrossing tale by drawing on archival material and interviews with principal figures in the controversy-including historian Ed Lawler, site activist Michael Coard, and site designer Emanuel Kelly. Upon the Ruins of Liberty chronicles the politically-charged efforts to create a fitting tribute to the place where George Washington (and later, John Adams) shaped the presidency whil
Trade ReviewAden's is one of the best book-length case studies I have seen on contested sites like the president's house. --Ken Foote
Table of ContentsPreface
1 Discovering the Truth: The Revelation of Ugly History
2 Re-collecting the Past: The Complexity of Public Memory
3 Displacing the Inconvenient: The Incomplete Story of Liberty
4 Honoring the Ancestors: The Quest for Acknowledgment
5 Shaping the Place: The Design Competition
6 Revealing the Foundations: The Excavation of the Site
7 Telling the Stories: The Opening of the Installation
8 Continuing the Conversation: The Legacy of the President’s House
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index
