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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. |
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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.` |
