John Bodnar’s Look at Commemoration in America

According to John Bodnar’s Remaking America, commemoration in America through pageantry, monuments, and festivals has entailed more than just parades and waving the nation’s flag. Instead, it is a story centered on “ordinary” and “official” people in certain forums and how their ideals on commemoration progress through time. Another important factor expressed by Bodnar is the influence of patriotism on commemoration. While both ordinary and cultural leaders express patriotism for their country and its history, each share a different view on it when related to commemoration.

Throughout Bodnar’s book, he describes the different views of commemoration shared by ordinary and official people. Ordinary people are those individuals who can be found in the American public, while official people are those cultural leaders and government officials who express power in society. In relation to commemoration, Bodnar believes that ordinary people display a vernacular ideal, focusing on the individual and smaller local communities. In contrast, commemoration to official people is a unifying force and a tool often used in the twentieth century in attempt to calm the public when political dissolution occurred.

In his argument, Bodnar displays the difference in ideals between these groups in three different forums. In the communal forum, Americans in various ethnic groups view commemoration as a way to “consent” and “descent” from their ancestral heritage. To Norwegian-Americans during the early twentieth century, they shared a desire to remember and commemorate their ancestral descent while also sharing the consent of incorporating the ethnic group’s influence on the founding of America. In a regional forum, Bodnar used the Midwest as an example of how a specific area and group of people search for symbols when commemorating their past. Throughout the Midwest, the pioneer was used as a symbol depicting the region’s progress and individuality. In the national forum, Bodnar describes the influence of the National Park Service (NPS) on historical interpretation starting in the 1930s. While the NPS had the final say in what historic sites were recognized and commemorated, Bodnar argues that their decision and information related to the sites were influenced by the efforts of local and ordinary people throughout the nation.

Within these forums, patriotism played an integral role in how commemoration and American history were presented. To ordinary people, patriotism meant individual valor and how one influenced a community through their progressive thinking. The pioneer in the Midwest retained this influence as people looked up to their ancestors as a way to remember traditions and the past. In contrast, government and cultural leaders view patriotism in relation to commemoration as a unifying force and an effort to create a broader national history. At the local level, cultural leaders and upper class citizens lead various state centennials and other celebrations, influencing how history was celebrated at more personal levels. The NPS influenced historical narrative of the nation by relating historic sites to the overall narrative of the creation and progression of America.

Overall, Bodnar’s Remaking America is an interesting look into commemoration practices throughout American history. Through the influence of ordinary people and cultural leaders, commemoration has evolved into a complex national pastime. As time progressed and ideals changed, so did commemoration practices. Various ethnic and regional groups lost their individual commemoration as leaders at the national level consumed their history as part of the whole historical narrative of the nation. To some extent, cultural and national leaders popularized commemorative celebrations for capital gain. What once seemed to be a reflective, personal look into one’s past has now become an effort to create a popularized, and an almost desensitized national practice.