Sacred Ground: Americans and Their Battlefields - Second Edition

259 Pages Indexed. Covers show some edge wear and the front cover corners are a bit turned up. Three bookstore ISBN labels have been added to the back cover. Beyond that is an As New book with flawless interior text pages. The author tells the history and role of five of America's most famous battle-site memorials: Lexington-Concord, the Alamo, Gettysburg, the Little Big Horn, and Pearl Harbor. Americans have always been inspired by visiting places where citizen armies turned ordinary land into sacred ground by their bloody sacrifices in epic battles. These venerated sites, the author says, provide a powerful focus for national reflections that enrich legends, often promoted by power groups. Lexington-Concord symbolized the valor of plain citizens risking death to shake off a tyranny and build a new society. The work of historians, the author argues, has changed perceptions of the Little Big Horn and altered the Custer myth. The author relates how the survivors of Gettysburg, once bitter enemies, would in time find friendship together while visitors would only occasionally be reminded of the forgotten message of Lincoln--that military valor and sacrifice would be in vain if a people would still be divided. Linenthal finds that the Arizona memorial at Pearl Harbor has seldom healed the average visitor's resentment toward Japan. This is an authoritative study of the nature of the American patriotic spirit as observed in its most hallowed memorials. Illustrated with 118 photographs, maps, and drawings. Contents in Five Chapters: The Pivot on Which the World Turns Lexington and Concord, A Reservoir of Spiritual Power The Alamo, A Joint and Precious Heritage Gettysburg, A Sore from America's Past That Has Not Yet Healed, and Rust and Sea and Memory in This Strange Graveyard Pearl Harbor. Plus Conclusion and Epilogue. Large heavy book that may incur additional charges for shipping to some locations.