Iconic Events: Media, Politics, and Power in Retelling History

by Patricia Leavy

Iconic Events: Media, Power, and Politics in Retelling History examines the processes of collective memory surrounding traumatic events that have been deemed iconic in American culture. Leavy investigates the social and market forces that have shaped the meanings around and enduring significance of events that have captured the public's imagination, including Titanic, Pearl Harbor, Columbine, and September 11th. Iconic Events focuses on three interpretive phases that serve to mold public perception of these events: journalistic representations, political appropriations, and popular adaptations. With a vital, engaging approach, Leavy explores the processes by which traumatic events are made mythic in the public eye. Iconic Events is essential for collective memory scholars and undergraduate courses in communications, American studies, history, and sociology, as well as the general reader.

220 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Patricia Leavy, Ph.D., is a bestselling author. She has published over fifty books, earning commercial and critical success in both fiction and nonfiction, and her work has been translated into many languages. Patricia has received over 100 book honors as well as career awards from the New England Sociological Association, the American Creativity Association, the American Educational Research Association, the International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry, and the National Art Education Association. In 2024 the London Arts-Based Research Centre established "The Patricia Leavy Award for Arts-Based Research." She lives in Maine with her family. Patricia loves writing, reading, watching films, and traveling. These days, she's focused on writing feel-good love stories.

Reviews

[Amanda Hobson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great analysis here of the way in which major events impact our popular culture as well as our historical understanding of ourselves as individuals and as a nation/culture/world.