To Die For: The Paradox of American Patriotism
July Fourth, "The Star-Spangled Banner," Memorial Day, and the pledge of allegiance are typically thought of as timeless and consensual representations of a national, American culture. In fact, as Cecilia O'Leary shows, most trappings of the nation's icons were modern inventions that were deeply and bitterly contested. While the Civil War determined the survival of the Union, what it meant to be a loyal American remained an open question as the struggle to make a nation moved off of the...
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"A brilliant and pioneering piece of scholarship.... The most comprehensive account of the patriotic cultural wars of late-nineteenth-century America yet written, and an examination that will shape scholarship for years to come."--John Bodnar, Indiana University Choice Magazine - R.J. Goldstein O'Leary especially stresses the role of organizations such as the Grand Army of the Republic, the Daughters of the American Revolution, and the United Confederate Veterans in deliberately constructin and avidly promoting a patriotic rewriting of United States history.
List of IllustrationsAcknowledgementsCh. 1"To Make a Nation"3Ch. 2"Dyed in the Blood of Our Forefathers": Patriotic Culture before the Civil War10Ch. 3"When Johnny Comes Marching Home": The Emergence of the Grand Army of the Republic29Ch. 4"Living History": Crafting Patriotic Culture within a Divided Nation49Ch. 5"Oh, My Sisters!": Shifting Relations of Gender and Race70Ch. 6"Mothers Train the Masses - Statesmen Lead the Few": Women's Place in Shaping the Nation91Ch. 7"One Country, One Flag, One People, One Destiny": Regions, Race, and Nationhood110Ch. 8"Blood Brotherhood": The Racialization of Patriotism129Ch. 9"I Pledge Allegiance...": Mobilizing the Nation's Youth150Ch. 10"The Great Fusing Furnace": Americanization in the Public Schools172Ch. 11"Clasping Hands over the Bloody Divide": National Memory, Racism, and Amnesia194Ch. 12"My Country Right or Wrong": World War I and the Paradox of American Patriotism220Notes247Bibliography313Index343
\ ChoiceThis study is not only well researched but also a sprightly written account of the development of modern American patriotism. . . . This is truly a work 'to die for.'\ \ \ \ \ Journal of Military HistoryWell written . . . O'Leary makes an important contribution to a growing body of scholarship that seeks to understand the vital role that rituals and symbols have played in the development of American nationalism.\ \ \ Civil War History[To Die For] has many thought-provoking insights. . . . The best chapters in O'Leary's synthetic work are those on the Americanization of children and the detailed description of the GAR and WRC, in which soldiers and the women who nursed them, fed, and sewed for them readjusted to the union.\ \ \ \ \ Journal of American Ethnic HistoryO'Leary's work breaks much new ground. To Die For belongs on any list of indispensable books for historians of ethnicity.\ — John McClymer\ \ \ \ \ Journal of American Ethnic History\ - John McClymer\ O'Leary's work breaks much new ground. To Die For belongs on any list of indispensable books for historians of ethnicity.\ \ \ \ \ R.J. GoldsteinO'Leary especially stresses the role of organizations such as the Grand Army of the Republic, the Daughters of the American Revolution, and the United Confederate Veterans in deliberately constructin and avidly promoting a patriotic rewriting of United States history.\ — Choice Magazine\ \
