Hope and Glory: Essays on the Legacy of the 54th Massachusetts Regiment [Hardcover]

Martin H. Blatt (Editor), Thomas J. Brown (Editor), Donald Yacovone (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 2000

The monument by Augustus Saint-Gaudens to Robert Gould Shaw and the 54th Massachusetts Regiment, located on Boston Common, stands at a symbolic crossroads of American history. A reminder of the nation's ongoing struggle over race, it captures the Civil War's higher purpose-the end of slavery-and memorializes those black soldiers and white officers who made common cause in the service of freedom. The monument and the saga of the 54th Massachusetts Regiment remain powerful touchstones, inspiring enduring meditations such as Robert Lowell's poem "For the Union Dead" and the popular film Glory.

This volume brings together the best new scholarship on the history of the 54th, the formation of collective memory and identity, and the ways Americans have responded to the story of the regiment and the Saint-Gaudens monument. Contributors use the historical record and popular remembrance of the 54th as a lens for examining race and community in the United States. The essays range in time from the mid- nineteenth century to the present and encompass history, literature, art, music, and popular culture.

In addition to the editors and General Colin Powell, who writes about the memory and example of the 54th in his own career, contributors include Stephen Belyea, David W. Blight, Thomas Cripps, Kathryn Greenthal, James Oliver Horton, Edwin S. Redkey, Marilyn Richardson, Kirk Savage, James Smethurst, Cathy Stanton, Helen Vendler, Denise Von Glahn, and Joan Waugh.

Editorial Reviews

Review

An essential book, helping us to understand how history, memory, monuments, and myth intertwine to keep the present comforted and discomforted by the past. --Journal of American History

An excellent, readable book full of thoughtful and provocative analysis from leading scholars. . . . It adds much to our understanding of black Americans' contributions to the Civil War. --New England Quarterly

This is a book intelligent, sensitive, beautifully written, and well integrated despite its diversity of authors that speaks eloquently to anyone interested in the soul of America. --North Carolina Historical Review --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

About the Author

Martin H. Blatt is chief of cultural resources and historian at Boston National Historical Park. Thomas J. Brown is associate professor of history at the University of South Carolina. Donald Yacovone is manager of research and grants, Du Bois Institute, Harvard University. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 360 pages
• Publisher: University of Massachusetts Press (December 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1558492771
• ISBN-13: 978-1558492776
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,924,372 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars the saga of the 54th Massachusetts goes on, February 25, 2001

By 

joan a. shelton - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hope and Glory: Essays on the Legacy of the 54th Massachusetts Regiment (Hardcover)

This collection of essays has a rather tight focus: it was compiled to mark the centennial of the "Shaw Memorial" in Boston by examining the events which inspired that sculpture, how the artist joined other media in celebrating the courage of black soldiers and their white companions, and how the saga of the 54th has moved out of Boston to take on a national life since the Civil War and especially since 1897. Thus the various essays present a nuanced picture of a widening cultural movement. Especially in the past half-century, black contributions to our national life have stepped forward to take their rightful place in our national consciousness, though much remains to be found out and held up to American society. Hopefully this volume marks the beginning of a national pride in which all can celebrate what blacks have achieved (generally at dreadful personal cost). I would have been interested in learning more about the poetry and fiction this regiment--and "the Shaw," its memorial--have inspired over the past 140 years. Whether they're wonderful or dreadful (and there have been plenty of both), stories and poems also demonstrate how our consciousness of black achievement has developed. We need all the help we can get, to learn from the past and move beyond it, but this book is a good start.`