Shadowed Ground: America's Landscapes of Violence and Tragedy [Paperback]

Kenneth E. Foote (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 1997 | ISBN-10: 0292725000 | ISBN-13: 978-0292725003 | Edition: 1ST

From the battlefield at Gettysburg to the Oklahoma City block where the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building once stood, sites of violence and tragedy have left indelible marks on the American landscape. Some have become places of pilgrimage, where visitors mourn losses, learn lessons from the tragedy, and experience renewal. Others became empty places where nothing remains to commemorate or even to mark the occurrence. In this pioneering book, Kenneth E. Foote explores how and why Americans have memorialized--or not--the sites of tragic and violent events. Drawing on years of travel and reflection, he traces the history of sites spanning three centuries and every region of the United States. Foote deduces that Americans usually react to the scenes of tragedy in one of four ways. Many places undergo public sanctification, such as Memphis' Lorraine Motel, where Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated. Some are simply designated with a marker, while others are rectified and returned to normal use. Those that produce shame and revulsion are often obliterated and left empty. These differing reactions to sites of violence offer an important new perspective to the debate over violence in American society.

Editorial Reviews

Review

From reviews of the first edition: "This splendid, well-written, amply documented volume is remarkable in several respects, including the fact that, despite being the first extended treatment of its subject, it is likely to remain the definitive one." Professional Geographer "A fascinating look at the American obsession with historically violent and tragic places." Western Historical Quarterly "Attitudes, values, beliefs, and experiences all play a part in the national collective unconscious that leads some sites to be sanctified, others to be obliterated, and still others to be ignored. Foote provides a valuable perspective on this process in a well-written and thoroughly illustrated book that offers a provocative theoretical perspective on the imprinting of historical memory on the American landscape." Public Historian "[This] is an erudite history and description of how Americans have, or have not, interpreted/recognized the meaning of violent and tragic events throughout their history." Space and Culture --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 381 pages
• Publisher: University of Texas Press; 1ST edition (1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0292725000
• ISBN-13: 978-0292725003
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.8 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,796,714 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Shadowed Ground : America's Places of Tragedy and Violence, July 29, 2001

By 

John Troesser, Editor, www.texasescapes.com (Texas, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Shadowed Ground: America's Landscapes of Violence and Tragedy (Paperback)

If you arrange your library by category you may have trouble with this book. History? True Crime? Cultural Geography? Anthropology? Sociology? American Studies?

The book covers the sites of disaster, assassination, murder and accident all across America, including nearly every site and shrine in Texas. We review it not just for it's interesting content, but its coverage of a most unusual type of geography. It's a thought-provoking book at how, why and in what manner we deal with the sites of violence (and tragedy).

The individual stories of the incidents are told completely, but without distracting from the book's theme.

It's a unique book and should remain so for some time. Foote's thoroughness guarantees that.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Phenomenal look at marking pain, May 21, 2003

By 

"beagle_blues" (Sunbury, PA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Shadowed Ground: America's Landscapes of Violence and Tragedy (Paperback)

Excellent overview of why we choose to designate tragic events in some cases, and hush-up others shamefully. Poignant, original...no other book so comprehensively covers the geography of painful memorials. An interesting sequel could be written regarding domestic terrorism, not just in America, but regarding other countries' place-memorials of such events.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic! Well written! Carefully researched!, November 20, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Shadowed Ground: America's Landscapes of Violence and Tragedy (Paperback)

This book explores the way Americans interpret and define landscapes that have been sites of violence and tragedy. It exhaustively researches the factors that have contributed to monument-making at sites that are critical in American history. Also explored are the various ways communities interpret tragedy: by sanctifying, reclaiming, or obliterating the traces of tragic histories, communities leave impressions on the landscape that reflect their sorrow, their shame, or their pride over past events. This is interdisciplinary work at its best: simultaneously history, geography, and sociology. The detail of the historical research presented is astounding, and that research, together with a lively application of Durkheim's theories of social solidarity, open the reader to a new understanding of the American landscape.