abolitionist-era valor
African American heritage studies
African American military legacy
artistic legacies of Saint-Gaudens
artistic tributes to Black soldiers
battlefield heroism narratives
Black Union Army regiments
Boston Common historical landmarks
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changing narratives of national unity
Civil War commemoration practices
Civil War representation in film and literature
collective remembrance in America
commemorative traditions across generati
community engagement with historical monuments
critical approaches to public memory
cultural impact of commemorative art
cultural resonance of heroic service
cultural responses to the 54th
enduring lessons of military courage
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eq_history
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eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
evolving memorial culture
heritage of freedom struggles
historical influence on later generations
influence of military leadership narratives
interpretations of military sacrifice
intersections of history and identity
intersections of race and patriotism
legacy of freedom fighters
legacy of interracial service
literary reflections on wartime sacrifice
modern responses to historic regiments
monuments and public meaning
multidisciplinary approaches to remembrance
music and artistic reinterpretations of history
nineteenth-century military history
public art and civic identity
racial justice symbolism
Reconstruction-era memory
reinterpretations of Civil War history
scholarship on race and community
sculpture as historical storytelling
shaping national identity through memorials
symbolic landscapes in American culture
Product details
- ISBN 9781558497221
- Weight: 540g
- Dimensions: 162 x 234mm
- Publication Date: 08 May 2009
- Publisher: University of Massachusetts Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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This work examines the lasting influence of the most famous black military unit of the Civil War. It was the semifinalist for the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Award. The monument by Augustus Saint-Gaudens to Robert Gould Shaw and the 54th Massachusetts Regiment, located on Boston Common, stands at a symbolic crossroads of American history. A reminder of the nation's ongoing struggle over race, it captures the Civil War's higher purpose - the end of slavery - and memorializes those black soldiers and white officers who made common cause in the service of freedom. The monument and the saga of the 54th Massachusetts remain powerful touchstones, inspiring enduring meditations such as Robert Lowell's poem ""For the Union Dead"" and the popular film ""Glory"". This volume brings together the best scholarship on the history of the 54th, the formation of collective memory and identity, and the ways Americans have responded to the story of the regiment and the Saint-Gaudens monument. Contributors use the historical record and popular remembrance of the 54th as a lens for examining race and community in the United States. The essays range in time from the mid-nineteenth century to the present and encompass history, literature, art, music, and popular culture. In addition to the editors and Colin Powell, who writes about the memory and example of the 54th in his own career, contributors include Stephen Belyea, David W. Blight, Thomas Cripps, Kathryn Greenthal, James Oliver Horton, Edwin S. Redkey, Marilyn Richardson, Kirk Savage, James Smethurst, Cathy Stanton, Helen Vendler, Denise Von Glahn, and Joan Waugh.
MARTIN H. BLATT is chief of cultural resources and historian at Boston National Historical Park. THOMAS J. BROWN is associate professor of history at the University of South Carolina. DONALD YACOVONE is manager of research and grants, Du Bois Institute, Harvard University.
