Papers by Steve Bare
Tennessee Historical Quarterly, 2022
Joint encampment article.
“'The Sinews of Memory:’ The Forging of Civil War Memory and Reconciliation, 1865 – 1940", 2019
“The Sinews of Memory:’ The Forging of Civil War Memory and Reconciliation, 1865 – 1940,” explore... more “The Sinews of Memory:’ The Forging of Civil War Memory and Reconciliation, 1865 – 1940,” explores the creation of historical memory of the American Civil War and, its byproduct, reconciliation. Stakeholders in the historical memory formation of the war and reconciliation were varied and many. “The Sinews of Memory” argues reconciliation blossomed from the 1880s well into the twentieth-century due to myriad of historical forces in the United States starting with the end of the war leading up to World War II. The crafters of the war’s memory and reconciliation – veterans, women’s groups, public history institutions, governmental agents, and civic boosters – arrived at a collective memory of the war predicated on notions of race, manliness, nationalism, and patriotism. In forging a specific memory of the Civil War, the aforementioned stakeholders in the process utilized veterans’ fraternal organizations, joint encampments of veterans, physical space, pilgrimages to sites of memory, and cultural products such as cinema to bind the former belligerent regions, both North and South, together. Out of the effort at reconciliation, a white, predominately middle-class, memory of the war emerged.
Book Reviews by Steve Bare
The Tennessee Historical Quarterly, 2020
According to Walter Benjamin, memory creates the chain of tradition that passes a happening on fr... more According to Walter Benjamin, memory creates the chain of tradition that passes a happening on from generation to generation. It is the Meuse-driven element of the epic art in a broader sense and encompasses its varieties. First place among these is the one practiced by the storyteller. It starts the web which all stories together form in the end. If we take Benjamin at his word, the story Edward Caudill and Paul Ashdown create in Inventing Custer: The Making of an American Legend adds another layer to the myth, memory, and story of George Armstrong Custer. Caudill and Ashdown argue that " Custer's Last Stand " remains one of the most iconic events in American history and culture. Had Custer prevailed at the Little Bighorn, the victory would have been momentarily notable, worthy of a few newspaper headlines. In defeat, however tactically inconsequential in in the larger Plains Indians Wars, he became mythic (3). Caudill and Ashdown examine Custer as a whole, as a product of the Civil War in which he played an important role, the culture and politics of the Reconstruction era, and the Plains Indian Wars, as well as the battle on the Little Bighorn that made Custer a legend. The authors see more congruence between the Civil War and the Indian Wars in " inventing Custer. " Understanding the Custer myth that grew out of the Little Bighorn means appreciating the Civil War Custer, whose commendable leadership and impulsive vanity went West with him, along with telling a story that found its way into numerous books and magazines (5). Caudill and Ashdown argue that insufficient attention has been paid to the journalists and other image manufacturers, including Custer himself, who were inventing what became his myth long before the Little Bighorn. Journalists, who were gaining authority and readership in a time of mass circulation newspapers and magazines, loved Custer in life and especially in death. He was a natural story, whether formally adorned with gold braids or a saber swathed in fringed buckskin. He looked the part of a masculinity that could tame the West. That he was writing memoirs before he reached his mid-thirties is testament both to his vanity and to his deeds (5). Inventing Custer is divided into two parts. Part I looks at Custer's early life, his years at West Point, and the Civil War, which were defining experiences of his life. The authors examine Custer's transition to a frontier soldier after the Civil War and the culminating Battle of the Little Bighorn. In Part II, Caudill and Ashdown explain how Custer became a legend, shaped by the press and changing sentiments toward American Indians. They consider the extensive historiography of the Custer story, its scrutiny by generations of journalists, historians, biographers, and others, each of whom brought a singular perspective to the task. Inventing Custer concludes with the army of visitors who have followed Custer to the Little Bighorn, the millions who have approached the battlefield with awe or scorn, as tourists or storytellers, in search of some numen seeking activity with the past. Caudill and Ashdown masterfully chronicle Custer's Civil War experience. It is here that they distinguish themselves from other historians and biographers of the man. Historiographically, little attention has been paid to Custer's long service during the Civil War. According to the authors, it is the war that made Custer a hero and began cementing his myth and memory. Deploying field reports, peer and superior testimony, Caudill and
Drafts by Steve Bare
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Papers by Steve Bare
Book Reviews by Steve Bare
Drafts by Steve Bare