Nation and Commemoration
Creating National Identities in the United States and Australia

How US and Australian national identities formed and represented in their bi/centennial celebrations.

Lynette P. Spillman (Author)

9780521574044, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 28 January 1997

266 pages, 1 table
23.6 x 15.8 x 2 cm, 0.504 kg

"Apart from finding the book interesting and well contructed, any scholar working in this area, or related areas, will particularly value the bibliographic material." Sociology

What do people think when they imagine themselves as part of a nation? Nation and Commemoration answers this question in an exploration of the creation and recreation of national identities through commemorative activities. Extending recent work in cultural sociology and history, Lyn Spillman compares centennial and bicentennial celebrations in the United States and Australia to show how national identities can emerge from processes of 'cultural production'. She systematically analyses the symbols and meanings of national identity in these two 'new nations', identifying changes and continuities, similarities and differences in how visions of history, place in the world, politics, land, and diversity have been used to express nationhood. The result is a deeper understanding, not only of American and Australian national identities, but also of the global process of nation-formation.

1. Comparing national identities
2. 'Every-one admits that commemorations have their uses': producing national identities in celebration
3. 'Our country by the world received': centennial celebrations in 1876 and 1888
4. 'To remind ourselves that we are a united nation': bicentennial celebrations in 1976 and 1988
5. Making nations meaningful in the United States and Australia.

Subject Areas: Cultural studies [JFC]