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Dissertation Information for W. Douglas Seefeldt

NAME:
- W. Douglas Seefeldt

DEGREE:
- Ph.D.

DISCIPLINE:
- History

SCHOOL:
- Arizona State University (USA) (2001)

ADVISORS:
- Peter Iverson

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
- Noel J. Stowe
- Stephen J. Pyne

MPACT Status: Fully Complete

Title: Constructing western pasts: Place and public memory in the twentieth-century American West

Abstract: Pasts are constructed in the twentieth-century American West, just as they are wherever and whenever humans strive to create a sense of place and to validate memory. Rivers and prairie grasses, wind and fire, bison and cattle, and all kinds of humans have each taken their turn manipulating their surroundings, creating landscapes, and constructing memories particular to their needs and wants. Many sites throughout the American West contain multiple layers of beliefs and ideas about the past and express them in such diverse forms as statues, memorials, markers and plaques, National Parks, National Monuments, and even the most seemingly mundane landscapes.

In an attempt to better understand the construction of public memory in the American West, this dissertation examines this process at three sites of memory--the Arizona mining town of Kearny, Colorado's Cuerno Verde Rest Area, and the Mountain Meadows massacre monuments in Utah. Each case study begins with descriptions of the geographical settings, plant and animal life, and the actions of the various human groups who created and transformed these landscapes. A section on each region's historical background follows, providing a context for the history of the public memory negotiation process in each locale. Finally, the complex processes of place-making and memory construction are analyzed, taking what seem to be closed public interpretations of history--fixed in cold stone and bronze--and reopening them in order to foster discussion with the voices and memories of those who remember different pasts.


MPACT Scores for W. Douglas Seefeldt

A = 0
C = 0
A+C = 0
T = 0
G = 0
W = 0
TD = 0
TA = 0
calculated 2008-04-21 13:00:17

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Students under W. Douglas Seefeldt

ADVISEES:
- None

COMMITTEESHIPS:
- None