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James Oliver Horton and Lois E. Horton, eds., Slavery and Public History: The Tough Stuff of American Memory. New York: New Press, 2006. Pp. xiv + 272. $25.95.
The number of scholarly treatments of memory has exploded in the last few years, fueled by a growing interest among historians in understanding how individuals and groups have shaped historical meaning to define themselves and their world. Despite its popularity as a topic of inquiry, the concept of memory has encountered resistance from some historians who see it as a notion that is too vague to hold any analytical value or too banal to be worthy of scholarly attention. Slavery and Public History is a strong answer to such critics. In shedding light on the function of historical memory regarding a most important topic, American slavery, it reminds us that academic historians have an obligation both to pay attention to and help shape the memory of slavery and race in the United States.
Slavery and Public History is a collection of essays that examine battles over the memory of slavery in public settings: museums, battlefields, historic districts, college and university campuses, and other public venues. The first three chapters of the book set the stage for these essays. Ira Berlin provides a brief history of slavery in the United States, outlining the central place of slavery to the American story and the...