Places of Public Memory

Places of Public Memory: The Rhetoric of Museums and Memorials is a sustained and rigorous consideration of the intersections of memory, place, and rhetoric. From the mnemonic systems inscribed upon ancient architecture to the roadside accident memorials that line America's highways, memory and place have always been deeply interconnected. This book investigates the intersections of memory and place through nine original essays written by leading memory studies scholars from the fields of rhetoric, media studies, organizational communication, history, performance studies, and English. The essays address, among other subjects, conflicting memories of the Second World War in various public memorials; rhetorics of resistance embedded in the plans for an expansion of the National Civil Rights Museum; representations of nuclear energy-both as power source and weapon-in Cold War and post-Cold War museums; and tours and tourism as acts of performance.

Greg Dickinson is Associate Professor of Communication Studies at Colorado State University. Carole Blair is Professor of Communication Studies at the University of North Carolina. Brian L. Ott is Visiting Professor of Communication at the University of Colorado Denver and author of The Small Screen: How Television Equips Us to Live in the Information Age.