Mystic Chords of Memory: The Transformation of Tradition in American Culture

by Michael Kammen

In this ground-breaking, panoramic work of American cultural history, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Michael Kammen examines a central paradox of our national identity: How did "the land of the future" acquire a past? And to what extent has our collective memory of that past, as embodied in our traditions, been distorted, or even manufactured?

Ranging from John Adams to Ronald Reagan, from the origins of Independence Day celebrations to the controversies surrounding the Vietnam War Memorial, from the Daughters of the American Revolution to immigrant associations, and filled with incisive analyses of such phenomena as Americana and its collectors, 'historic' villages and Disneyland, Mystic Chords of Memory is a brilliant, immensely readable, and enormously important book.

"Brilliant, idiosyncratic…presented with superlative style laced with refreshing wit."
-- The New York Times Book Review

"Illustrated with hundreds of well-chosen anecdotes and minute observations . . . Kammen is a demon researcher who seems to have mined his nuggets from the entire corpus of American cultural history . . . insightful and sardonic."
-- Washington Post Book World

"This is a big, ambitious book, and Kammen pulls it off admirably. . . . [He] brings a prodigious mind and much scholarly rigor to his task . . . an important book and a revealing look at how Americans look at themselves."
-- Milwaukee Journal

Genres: History, American History, Theory, Academic, Nonfiction, The United States Of America, Philosophy

877 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

About the author

Michael Gedaliah Kammen was a professor of American cultural history at Cornell University. He won the Pulitzer Prize (History, 1973) for his book, People of Paradox: An Inquiry Concerning the Origins of American Civilization.

Reviews

[Miles · Rating 4 out of 5]

A brilliant, dense, and now dated work on America's acquisition of a history by the dean of cultural historians. Kammen's exploration of how a democratic society went from uninterested to fascinated by its past (spoiler: it was often manufactured) and the debates surrounding what makes America's culture unique is fascinating. He has a tendency to drone on with examples which stretches the book past 700 pages, but rarely is it dull. Some of his conclusions on what makes Americans' views of tradition have aged poorly, particularly in the wake of the controversies over Confederate monuments (especially his contention that we depoliticize history to promote reconciliation - he notes that the Reagan era started to turn away from this, and it has only gotten less true). Still a valuable look at how we acquired our past, and it's not as rosy as you may think. Cultural amnesia is a real thing. We meet a lot of fascinating Americans - the likeable Constance Rourke and Thomas Hart Benton to the dislikeable John D Rockefeller Jr and Lyon G. Tyler. Lots of good nuggets in here. Recommended to the dedicated student of American history and memory.

[Rob · Rating 2 out of 5]

The most overused word in the history of book reviewing-- "magisterial"-- suggests an epic scale and a vast depth of learning. It can also suggest an unending tangle of painstakingly ordered facts.

In Mystic Chords, Kammen trots out enough learning about the history of history to give an Oxford don heartburn. Truly magisterial, like a shelf filled with old law books. Wearying details about the commencement speeches at famous monuments and historical societies seem to swirl whirl around the vague thesis that "the Civil War changed everything." (A thesis that can be applied to about 30% of scholarship about American history.)

The great thing about reading for pleasure is that you know when to say when. I gave up around page 320.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kammen is an able writer on the topic of the creation of cultural democracy. This book sheds light on that mystery on how to democratize democracy if you will so that it is culturally present. It is a good read and one that enables the seeing of the monuments as deliberate stone built testaments to an ongoing act of a creative experiment in the visual and sociological landscape. Interesting book.

[Michael Greening · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is something about this book ... Not sure if it lies in the connection of public memory and various cultural developments in American history, or the (some might say over-) comprehensive nature of Kammen's writing, or maybe his erudition...whatever the reason, it is a compelling read.

[Trevor Seigler · Rating 4 out of 5]

How do we remember history? How do we as Americans commemorate our shared past and what does it say about our present and future? Can we have a shared past in a heterogeneous country? These are some of the questions that Michael Kammen deals with in this book, which is masterful at times at documenting the ways in which we remember (or choose to remember, really). This is not a book to be coveted by the folks who think of history as a story of "progress," but it does highlight the ways in which our remembrance of the past has changed over the years (a "history of history," if you will), and it doesn't pull its punches in highlighting the neglectful ways in which history has often been recorded here in the United States.

[Reads At · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dense and intimidating for non specialists. That said there are many great details about American historic sites. Good reading for those interested in historic preservation and how that has changed over the years.

[Jessica (JT) Thelen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some good definitions and useful examples, but very dated.

[John Hopkins · Rating 3 out of 5]

Informative but tedious.

[Jonathan Hedgpeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an exceptional work. I got through all 704 pages in roughly a month's time. I took away one star from my review for Kammen's frequently challenging narrative style--but when he hits one home, boy does he ever knock it way out of the park. The book is full of valuable nuggets about cultural construction and the use of/prevalence of myth in American society. The gleaning of salient points from the storied lives of individuals such as Bernard DeVoto, Zora Neale Hurston, Edith Halpert, Allen Tate, Robert Penn Warren, Thomas Hart Benton, Ezra Meeker and Charles Francis Adams were illuminating in the fullest sense of the word.

I will give the reader two of my favorite and most telling quotes from this book:

1st the short quote attributed to Oliver Wendell Holmes, "We live by symbols."

The 2nd quote is slightly longer,

"(Edith) Halpert and one of the artists she 'handled', Charles Sheeler, are especially interesting because they exemplify so forcefully that traditionalism and modernism were not mutually exclusive. Halpert and Sheeler not only valued both impulses, but successfully connected the two and used each one to reinforce the other. Both of them believed that early American handicrafts and folk art anticipated trends in contemporary design..."

I gained an understanding of the historic preservation movement and the general democratization of tradition from this book. If you have an interest in symbol or myth and so called useable pasts-then you may like this book.

When I was in undergrad this book retained a cult-like status, now I know why.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great read for anyone interested in public memory and American history. Kammen is exhaustive in his examples, so be prepared to read not just one or two pieces of data to support his claims, instead it is more like five or six or seven or...

[Amy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had to re-read this for an article revision...it's OK.

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit too long (700+ pages), but it's an interesting overview of how traditions were created and recreated in American history.

[Robert Ripson]

Exceptional account of how America has learned to have a memory. A memory of tradition, myths, and even symbolic notions of what it means to be an American.