Mystic Chords of Memory: The Transformation of Tradition in American Cultur e.

US: Vintage, 1993. Paperback. Very Good/Very Good. Mystic Chords of Memory "Illustrated with hundreds of well-chosen anecdotes and minute observations . . . Kammen is a demon researcher who seems to have mined his nuggets fro m the entire corpus of American cultural history. . . . Insightful and sard onic."--Washington Post Book World In this groundbreaking, panoramic work of American cultural history, the Pu litzer Prize-winning author of A Machine That Would Go of Itself 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? Rangi ng from John Adams to Ronald Reagan, from the origins of Independence Day c elebrations to the controversies surrounding the Vietnam War Memorial, from the Daughters of the American Revolution to immigrant associations, and fi lled with incisive analyses of such phenonema as Americana and its collecto rs, "historic" villages and Disneyland, Mystic Chords of Memory is a brilli ant, immensely readable, and enormously important book. "Fascinating . . . a subtle and teeming narrative . . . masterly."--Time "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.