Memory Wars

A. Lynn Smith is a professor of anthropology and sociology at Lafayette College. She is a coauthor of Rebuilding Shattered Worlds: Creating Community by Voicing the Past (Nebraska, 2016) and author of Colonial Memory and Postcolonial Europe: Maltese Settlers in Algeria and France.

• List of IllustrationsList of MapsAcknowledgementsTerminologyIntroduction: The Stories We TellPart I: Origins: Settler Colonial Public MemoryPennsylvania: In the Shadow of Wyoming1. Yankee Insurgency and the Battle of Wyoming2. Patriotic Women Celebrate Sullivan3. Pennsylvania’s 1929 Sullivan SeriesNew York: Replacement through Just Warfare4. Ambivalent Festivities and the Newtown Centennial of 18795. Inventing “Sullivan-Clinton” for New York6. Celebrating Sullivan in Indian Country7. The 1929 “Pageant of Decision”8. A Tale of Two StatesPart 2: Reverberations: The Revolutionary Past in Contemporary America9. Dueling Celebrations10. Pennsylvania11. New York12. Changing the NarrativePart 3: Interventions: Indigenous Histories of Settler Colonialism13. Haudenosaunee Historical ConsciousnessEpilogueBibliographyNotesIndex

"Through its use of a wide range of sources and approaches, Memory Wars provides an excellent study of how divergent and complex forces have shaped public perception, memory, and the commemoration of a major historical event."—Matthew C. Ward, Journal of American History "Memory Wars is especially relevant to public historians, museum professionals, and others who study, create, and dismantle inaccurate narratives consumed by the public at interpretive sites. This book is an important and timely contribution to the interpretation of American history."—Lieutenant Colonel Paul Fardink, USA-Ret., On Point: Journal of Army History"[A] fascinating historical reconstruction of settler historical consciousness. . . . [The book] offers excellent insight into the operations of settler time and memory. . . . Memory Wars is a well-written and uniquely organized interdisciplinary monograph that productively engages recent colonial studies and memory studies. Smith's work contributes to our understanding of regionally distinctive forms of settler historical consciousness emerging from difficult histories of violence and forced removal."—Lisa Blee, Native American and Indigenous Studies"As the country moves toward the 250th anniversary of the revolution, Memory Wars provides not only a case study of contemporary ambiguity over the revolution's legacies but a clear benchmark for how and why we should remember the nation's founding era."—Matthew Dziennik, H-War "Beginning with the question of how settlers dealt with the knowledge that their presence on particular lands resulted from others' dispossession, Smith examines an array of diverse, often overlooked primary sources and places them into conversation with theoretical studies on memory work and historical consciousness. The result is a much-needed intervention in early American studies."—J. W. Parmenter, Choice "Smith uncovers some important distinctions to the quality of marker texts, the organizations that posted them, and the celebrations taking place around them. . . . The result is a remarkable work that combines past and present, correcting the errors found on markers and relating the author's personal experiences in digging out long-buried facts."—Abraham Hoffman, Roundup Magazine"A. Lynn Smith demonstrates the power of combining history and ethnography in the study of historical consciousness. At once a history of commemoration and an ethnography of remembrance, Memory Wars illuminates long, tangled histories of both settler and Native understandings of events at the heart of the American origin story."—Geoffrey M. White, author of Memorializing Pearl Harbor: Unfinished Histories and the Work of Remembrance “Important and timely. Memory Wars is relevant to public historians, museum professionals, and others who study, create, and dismantle narratives consumed by the public at interpretive sites. It makes a contribution to early American history by challenging the interpretations of the Sullivan Expedition and its commemoration and the erasure of intra-settler conflicts. Finally, the research makes a significant contribution to Native American history.”—Dawn G. Marsh, author of A Lenape among the Quakers: The Life of Hannah Freeman “An excellent case study of historical memory formation that is relevant to contemporary debates over commemorations and the legacy of settler colonialism grounded in especially fascinating fieldwork. This is a very engaging read.”—Andrew Newman, author of On Records: Delaware Indians, Colonists, and the Media of History and Memory