1898: History and Memory
A Lecture at the AISNA Annual Meeting
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.13135/1592-4467/9053Keywords:
history, memory, warAbstract
It is almost a truism that the war of 1898 was a turning point in American history. But where did it turn to? The essay explores the major historical interpretations and stresses the transitional character of the event, which foreshadows only a few of the future features of US international relations, while at the same time retaining conspicuous elements of the past. It is then argued that this unresolved ambiguity features very prominently in present day memories and remembrances - here analyzed via the centennial's production of websites as well as printed matters. Current views of 1898 symptomatically emphasize its multiracial and gendered aspects, but turn a blind eye to the shifting nexus of power inherent in the war's origins and results. History's ambiguities are thus replicated and magnified in memory.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
RSAJournal applies a CC BY-NC-ND license to all its contributions. This license enables reusers to copy and distribute the material in any medium or format in unadapted form only, for noncommercial purposes only, and only so long as attribution is given to the creator. CC BY-NC-ND includes the following elements:
- BY: credit must be given to the creator.
- NC: Only noncommercial uses of the work are permitted.
- ND: No derivatives or adaptations of the work are permitted.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain the copyright and full publishing rights for their submissions to the journal.
- Authors grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License that allows others to share unedited work for non-commercial purposes with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
