HIST 105 History Wars: The Politics of Public History
From the Vietnam Memorial in Washington to the removal of Confederate statues throughout the American South, public history has become a flashpoint for controversy. That is largely because how we remember the past can have a large impact on the way in which we shape the future. We will begin by looking at the benefits and problems associated with traditional strategies of historic preservation; and then proceed to examine the ways in which public monuments, museums, and related exhibition strategies have sought to redress significant deficiencies in our historical self-understanding. The course will conclude with two case studies where debates over the past have led to significant controversies and public misunderstandings: The Smithsonian exhibition featuring the Enola Gay (the plane which carried the nuclear weapon that some say "ended the war" with Japan); and the 1619 Project, which has become controversial for its attempts to re-conceptualize the role of race in American history and serve as a spur for rethinking the curricula of our nation's schools.
Cross Listed Courses
This course is immersed in the questions asked by the field of American Studies