Memory Wars - by A Lynn Smith (Hardcover)

About the Book

Memory Wars is an historical anthropological study that explores how commemorative sites and patriotic fanfare marking the mission of General John Sullivan into Iroquois territory during the Revolutionary War continue to shape historical understandings today.

Book Synopsis

Named a 2024 Choice Outstanding Academic Title

Memory Wars explores how commemorative sites and patriotic fanfare marking the mission of General John Sullivan into Iroquois territory during the Revolutionary War continue to shape historical understandings today. The 1779 expedition was planned and ordered by General George Washington. It was a massive enterprise composed of four forays involving thousands of men who were sent on a scorched-earth campaign, obliterating nearly sixty Iroquois and other Native villages, including homes, crops, and stored foodstuffs. For Indigenous residents it was a brutal invasion. For settlers who eventually moved onto razed village sites, it meant land and fortunes beyond measure.

The Sullivan Expedition has long been fixed on the landscape of Pennsylvania and New York by a cast of characters, including amateur historians, newly formed historical societies, and local chapters of the Daughters of the American Revolution. Asking how it is that people continue to "celebrate Sullivan" in the present day, Memory Wars underscores the symbolic value of the past as well as the dilemmas posed to contemporary Americans by the national commemorative landscape.

Review Quotes

"[A] fascinating historical reconstruction of settler historical consciousness. . . . [The book] offers excellent insight into the operations of settler time and memory. . . . Memory Wars is a well-written and uniquely organized interdisciplinary monograph that productively engages recent colonial studies and memory studies. Smith's work contributes to our understanding of regionally distinctive forms of settler historical consciousness emerging from difficult histories of violence and forced removal."--Lisa Blee, Native American and Indigenous Studies

"A. Lynn Smith demonstrates the power of combining history and ethnography in the study of historical consciousness. At once a history of commemoration and an ethnography of remembrance, Memory Wars illuminates long, tangled histories of both settler and Native understandings of events at the heart of the American origin story."--Geoffrey M. White, author of Memorializing Pearl Harbor: Unfinished Histories and the Work of Remembrance

"Smith uncovers some important distinctions to the quality of marker texts, the organizations that posted them, and the celebrations taking place around them. . . . The result is a remarkable work that combines past and present, correcting the errors found on markers and relating the author's personal experiences in digging out long-buried facts."--Abraham Hoffman, Roundup Magazine

"Memory Wars is especially relevant to public historians, museum professionals, and others who study, create, and dismantle inaccurate narratives consumed by the public at interpretive sites. This book is an important and timely contribution to the interpretation of American history."--Lieutenant Colonel Paul Fardink, USA-Ret., On Point: Journal of Army History

"As the country moves toward the 250th anniversary of the revolution, Memory Wars provides not only a case study of contemporary ambiguity over the revolution's legacies but a clear benchmark for how and why we should remember the nation's founding era."--Matthew Dziennik, H-War

"Through its use of a wide range of sources and approaches, Memory Wars provides an excellent study of how divergent and complex forces have shaped public perception, memory, and the commemoration of a major historical event."--Matthew C. Ward, Journal of American History

"Beginning with the question of how settlers dealt with the knowledge that their presence on particular lands resulted from others' dispossession, Smith examines an array of diverse, often overlooked primary sources and places them into conversation with theoretical studies on memory work and historical consciousness. The result is a much-needed intervention in early American studies."--J. W. Parmenter, Choice-- (2/1/2024 12:00:00 AM)

"Important and timely. Memory Wars is relevant to public historians, museum professionals, and others who study, create, and dismantle narratives consumed by the public at interpretive sites. It makes a contribution to early American history by challenging the interpretations of the Sullivan Expedition and its commemoration and the erasure of intra-settler conflicts. Finally, the research makes a significant contribution to Native American history."--Dawn G. Marsh, author of A Lenape among the Quakers: The Life of Hannah Freeman

"An excellent case study of historical memory formation that is relevant to contemporary debates over commemorations and the legacy of settler colonialism grounded in especially fascinating fieldwork. This is a very engaging read."--Andrew Newman, author of On Records: Delaware Indians, Colonists, and the Media of History and Memory

About the Author

A. Lynn Smith is a professor of anthropology and sociology at Lafayette College. She is a coauthor of Rebuilding Shattered Worlds: Creating Community by Voicing the Past (Nebraska, 2016) and author of Colonial Memory and Postcolonial Europe: Maltese Settlers in Algeria and France.