Nation And Commemoration: Creating National Identities In The United States And Australia

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 analyzes 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. Nation and commemoration Cambridge Cultural Social Studies General editors: JEFFREY C. ALEXANDER, Department of Sociology, University of California, Los Angeles, and STEVEN SEIDMAN, Department of Sociology, University at Albany, State University of New York. Editorial Board Department of Anthropology, University of Chicago DONNA HARAWAY, Department of the History of Consciousness, University of California, Santa Cruz MICHELE LAMONT, Department of Sociology, Princeton University THOMAS LAQUEUR, Department of History, University of California, Berkeley JEAN COMOROFF, Titles in the series ILANA FRIEDRICH SILBER, Virtuosity, charisma, and social order LINDA NICHOLSON AND STEVEN SEIDMAN (eds.), Social postmodernism WILLIAM BOGARD, The simulation of surveillance SUZANNE R. KIRSCHNER, The religious and Romantic origins of psychoanalysis PAUL LICHTERMAN, The search for political community ROGER FRIEDLAND AND RICHARD HECHT, To rule Jerusalem French revolutionary syndicalism and the public sphere ERICK RINGMARR, Identity, interest, and action ALBERTO MELUCCI, The playing self ALBERTO MELUCCI, Challenging codes SARAH M. CORSE, Nationalism and literature DARNELL M. HUNT, Screening the Los Angeles "riots" KENNETH H. TUCKER, JR., Nation and commemoration Creating national identities in the United States and Australia Lyn Spillman University of Notre Dame CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, Sao Paulo Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 2RU, UK Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521574044 © Lynette P. Spillman 1997 First published 1997 A catalogue recordfor this publication is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data Spillman, Lynette P. Nation and commemoration : creating national identities in the United States and Australia / Lyn Spillman. p. cm. - (Cambridge cultural social studies) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0 521 57404 8 (he) - ISBN 0 521 57432 3 (pbk) 1. Nationalism — United States — History. 2. Nationalism — Australia — History. 3. United States — Centennial celebrations, etc. 4. Australia - Centennial celebrations, etc. 5. American Revolution Bicentennial, 1776-1976. 6. Australian Bicente