Home | Business News | Browse by Publication | A | American Scholar

Sesquicentennial excess: must we erase evidence of later commemorations at Civil War sites?

Article Excerpt
One morning in March I read some disquieting news in AAA World magazine. With the 150th anniversary of John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry coming up this October, the Civil War Sesquicentennial lumbers onto the runway for its official takeoff two years hence. It's always inspiring to watch a useful word rise from the dead--sesquicentennial hasn't seen much use since celebrations of the American Revolution in the 1920s and early 1930s--but I wonder whether this relatively unpublicized commemoration is really a good idea. The long-anticipated Civil War Centennial, as those old enough to remember may have forgotten by now, had a strong beginning about the time President Kennedy was elected but gradually petered out, eclipsed by, among other things, dramatic events in the struggle for civil rights across the South. By the time the 100th anniversary of Appomattox rolled around, the nation was preoccupied with what soon became the Voting Rights Act...

View this article FREE - Now for a Limited Time, try Goliath Business News
Free for 3 Days!