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Author Costello, Matthew (Matthew R.), author.

Title The property of the nation : George Washington's tomb, Mount Vernon, and the Memory of the First President / Matthew R. Costello.

Publication Info. Lawrence, Kansas : University Press of Kansas, [2019]

Copies

Location Call No. OPAC Message Status
 Axe Reference 2nd Floor Stacks  973.41 W277Bco 2019    ---  Available
Description xv, 336 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
text txt rdacontent
unmediated n rdamedia
volume nc rdacarrier
Note Revision of the author's 2016 dissertation The property of the nation : democracy and the memory of George Washington, 1799-1865.
Summary "In the nineteenth century, George Washington became remembered as a man of the common people and the father of American democracy, despite the fact he was an aristocratic elite who believed in a strong centralized government. Following his death in 1799, the political leaders and social elites of the time competed for control of his memory and symbolic status, seeking to use Washington as a figurehead for their particular cause. But these episodes shed little light on how the greater American populace remembered him. In The Property of the Nation, Matthew Costello tells the story of Washington's tomb, the popularity of which tells us more about how ordinary Americans remembered, shared, and believed in a variety of narratives that made Washington a man of the people. The tomb served as an intersection for historical tourism, race and class relations, popular culture, and religious expression, all facets of life transformed by the growth of political democracy. These experiences illuminate how the democratic impulse transcended the present, as more Americans sought to know, touch, and even possess pieces of Washington's past"-- Provided by publisher.
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 289-326) and index.
Contents The body republic : Pater Patriae and the politics of disinterment -- "There's money in old George's bones" : John Augustine Washington III and the advent of historical tourism -- Cultivators of legend : enslaved storytellers at Mount Vernon -- Frontiersman, solider, and farmer : the democratic Washington in popular culture -- The civic pilgrimage : Washington's tomb and the veneration of Washington relics -- "Guardians of a national shrine" : the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association and the legacy of Washington -- Conclusion: Washington of the people, by the people, for the people.
Subject Washington, George, 1732-1799 -- Tomb.
Washington, George, 1732-1799 -- Death and burial.
Washington, George, 1732-1799 -- Influence.
Mount Vernon (Va. : Estate) -- History -- 19th century.
Collective memory -- United States -- History.
Presidents -- United States -- Biography.
Washington, George, 1732-1799. (OCoLC)fst00178100
Collective memory. (OCoLC)fst01739814
Influence (Literary, artistic, etc.) (OCoLC)fst00972484
Presidents. (OCoLC)fst01075723
Tombs. (OCoLC)fst01152439
United States. (OCoLC)fst01204155
Virginia -- Mount Vernon (Estate) (OCoLC)fst01333596
Chronological Term 1800-1899
Genre/Form Biographies. (OCoLC)fst01919896
History. (OCoLC)fst01411628
ISBN 9780700628278 (cloth ; alk. paper)
0700628274
9780700628285 (ebook)

 
    
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