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Essay On Memorial Mania

1594 Words7 Pages

History is everywhere, no matter where you are or where you are going, there is always a back-story behind everything. Since the day we founded this country in 1492 to present day, we continue to create history, but how do we preserve the memory or of it actually happening? Philosopher George Santayana once said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” History tends to repeat itself, but with these memorials, we are constantly looking at what we did in the past to try an avoid such issues arising or help with solving an issue. In Memorial Mania, Erika Doss argues that we as a society have “an obsession with issues of memory and history and an urgent desire to express and claim those issues in visibly public contexts” …show more content…

This memorial is one of the most popular memorials around the world and for good reason. I haven’t been able to go there myself, but from viewing pictures and from word of mouth, it is breathtaking to be able to read the names of the people who were taken away and actually stand on the site where it happened. These memorials are meant for us viewers to understand what occurred and provide us with the memory that we have had during it. In public history, there are practices that help us to do so, such as audience, collaboration, and reflective practice. This memorial incorporated the audience and collaboration well and are relevant to the understanding of this memorial. It memorializing such a diverse group of people and collaborating with the community to make this happen and making it one of the top spots to visit during one's trip to New York. This wide diversity of audience within the realm of public history is one characteristic that makes public history what it is since visitors want to see themselves reflected in public history

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