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Rememberin In today’s United States, the legacy of the American Revolution looms large. From presidential speeches to bestselling biographies, from conservative politics to school pageants, everybody knows something about the Revolution. Yet what was a messy, protracted, divisive, and destructive war has calcified into a glorified founding moment of the American nation. Disparate events with equally diverse participants have been reduced to a few key scenes and characters, presided over by well-meaning and wise old men. In this lively collection of essays, historians and literary scholars consider how the first three generations of American citizens interpreted their nation’s origins. They show how the memory of the Revolution became politicized early in the nation’s history, as different interests sought to harness its meaning for their own ends. No single faction succeeded, and at the outbreak of the Civil War the American people remained divided over how to remember the Revolution. MICHAEL A.MCDONNELL is associate professor of history at the University of Sydney. CLARE CORBOULD is Australian Research Council Future Fellow at Monash University, Melbourne. FRANCES M.CLARKE is senior lecturer at the University of Sydney. W.FITZHUGH BRUNDAGE is professor of history at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. a volume in the series Public History in Historical Perspective Cover design by Sally Nichols Cover painting by Emanuel Leutze, Washington Crossing the Delaware, oil on canvas, 1851, 149 x 255 in. (378.5 x 647.7 cm), Metropolitan Museum of Art. Gift of John Stewart Kennedy, 1897. Acc. no. 97.34. UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS PRESS Amherst and Boston www.umass.edu/umpress Rememberin REVOLUTION ...

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