Thanksgiving: The Biography of an American Holiday
Thanksgiving: The Biography of an American Holiday opens with an overview of the popular mythos of the holiday before discussing its possible religious and cultural precedents. This classic Yankee holiday is examined in historical and contemporary detail that embraces everything from proclamations, sermons, and local and regional traditions to family reunions, turkey dinners, and recipes. Thanksgiving's evolving face is illustrated with charming and often revealing period prints that chart...
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The origins and ever-changing story of America's favorite holiday The Washington Post - Alexander Nazaryan James Baker…does not wag a scholar's dour finger at what has become a turkey-and-football jamboree. But in his comprehensive and readable history of the holiday, he does remind us that Thanksgiving is more than those "ubiquitous, mass-produced images of buckle-hatted Pilgrims, generic Indians, turkeys, pumpkins, and cornstalks"…Baker acknowledges Native American grievances and sorts assiduously through the erroneous depictions of this "enthusiastically muddled" holiday: Pilgrims did not adorn themselves with buckle hats and ruffled collars, the Wampanoag bore little resemblance to the Plains Indians they are usually depicted as, and log cabins did not exist in Colonial New England.
Foreword: Thanksgiving in America Peter J. Gomes Gomes, Peter J.Introduction A Thanksgiving Detective Story 1Ch. 1 New England's Puritan Holy Days 14Ch. 2 The Traditional New England Thanksgiving 31Ch. 3 The Classic New England Thanksgiving Dinner 46Ch. 4 The Nation Embraces Thanksgiving, 1780-1880 62Ch. 5 Nineteenth-Century Holiday Imagery in Literature and Art 78Ch. 6 Enter the Pilgrims 98Ch. 7 Pilgrims Are for Kids: Thanksgiving in the Progressive Classroom 115Ch. 8 Imaging the Holiday 129Ch. 9 Parades, Patriotism, and Consumption 145Ch. 10 Consensus and Competition: The Postwar Thanksgiving 165Ch. 11 New Myths for Old - Thanksgiving under Siege 183Ch. 12 Thanksgiving Now, Then, and Forever 201Appendix 1 A Thanksgiving Poem by Henry Bliss 219Appendix 2 Some Early Thanksgiving Recipes 230Appendix 3 United American Indians of New England Press Release 233Notes 235Bibliography 259Index 267
\ Alexander NazaryanJames Baker…does not wag a scholar's dour finger at what has become a turkey-and-football jamboree. But in his comprehensive and readable history of the holiday, he does remind us that Thanksgiving is more than those "ubiquitous, mass-produced images of buckle-hatted Pilgrims, generic Indians, turkeys, pumpkins, and cornstalks"…Baker acknowledges Native American grievances and sorts assiduously through the erroneous depictions of this "enthusiastically muddled" holiday: Pilgrims did not adorn themselves with buckle hats and ruffled collars, the Wampanoag bore little resemblance to the Plains Indians they are usually depicted as, and log cabins did not exist in Colonial New England.\ —The Washington Post\ \ \ \ \ Library JournalBaker has incorporated all the available research on Thanksgiving and enriched it with his unparalleled access to original sources as the former director of research at Plimoth Plantation. Most appealing about this book is that it has been produced by an expert on the topic, and one who is also a Plymouth, MA, native. He shows us how Thanksgiving is seen through each generation's reality, having morphed from a holiday for pilgrim hats and turkeys to a cause for Native American protests to a holy day to several ancient holidays combined and a full-scale orgy of food and football. Thanksgiving is not the holiday you think it is and will not be the holiday you know now in 100 years, but it can be whatever holiday you need. There is now a desire to make it an international holiday—Who knows? VERDICT This is destined to become the accepted text for research on the history and myth of this most American holiday, and it will be an enjoyable, fascinating read both for students and for anyone looking for a good story.—Suzanne Lay, Perry H.S., GA\ \ \ From the Publisher"Baker has incorporated all the available research on Thanksgiving and enriched it with his unparalleled access to original sources as the former director of research at Plimoth Plantation. Most appealing about this book is that it has been produced by an expert on the topic, and one who is also a Plymouth, MA, native. He shows us how Thanksgiving is seen through each generation's reality, having morphed from a holiday for pilgrim hats and turkeys to a cause for Native American protests to a holy day to several ancient holidays combined and a full-scale orgy of food and football. Thanksgiving is not the holiday you think it is and will not be the holiday you know now in 100 years, but it can be whatever holiday you need. There is now a desire to make it an international holiday-Who knows? . . . . This is destined to become the accepted text for research on the history and myth of this most American holiday, and it will be an enjoyable, fascinating read both for students and for anyone looking for a good story."--Booklist\ "Baker traces how the [Thanksgiving] celebration has changed over the years. In the 18th century, Thanksgiving was viewed as a day for family reunions, and the Pilgrims were remembered as the symbolic founders of New England. But the connection between the two had been lost by the time George Washington issued the first presidential Thanksgiving proclamation in 1789. . . Baker notes that the struggle over the significance of the Thanksgiving holiday continues, with historical accuracy often the victim of political advantage. But, he argues, 'the holiday's cultural vigor is actually demonstrated by the conflicts and debates that surround it.' For, he observes, 'debate indicates relevance, and the dispute over the appropriate role of Thanksgiving in American life demonstrates that the holiday is very much alive and still evolving.'"--Boston Globe\ "James Baker, a former researcher at Plimoth Plantation in Massachusetts, does not wag a scholar's dour finger at what has become a turkey-and-football jamboree. But in his comprehensive and readable history of the holiday, he does remind us that Thanksgiving is more than 'ubiquitous, mass-produced images of buckle-hatted Pilgrims, generic Indians, turkeys, pumpkins, and cornstalks.' For the Puritans aboard the Mayflower, Thanksgiving was a religious service to acknowledge God's providence. Its focus was prayer, not festivity. And while the Massachusetts Pilgrims did celebrate a harvest holiday in fall 1621 with friendly Wampanoags, Baker argues that this landmark event 'meets none of the qualifications for an orthodox Thanksgiving.'"--Washington Post\ "[A] thorough and readable history. . . . The actual purpose of this book is to prove once again that one of the nation's beloved holidays is an 'invented tradition,' discontinuous in its history and varied in the types of ways it has been celebrated. Baker examines a vast range of cultural materials from postcards to children's books to Hollywood films of the 1990s. There is evidence about how people actually celebrate this holiday, but it is not as important as the theme of myth-making and contested history. Baker demonstrates the commonsense; not just that myths take on a life of their own but that in speaking to 'hopes and fears,' myths are much more emotionally satisfying than truths."--Journal of Social History\ \ \
