George Washington Parke Custis
George Washington Parke Custis

Author: Charles S. Clark

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2021-08-27

Total Pages: 238

ISBN-13: 1476686629

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George Washington Parke Custis (1781-1857) was raised at Mount Vernon by George and Martha Washington. Young "Wash" appears in Savage's 1789 painting of the first presidential family, his small hand placed symbolically on a globe. He would later make his mark on the national landscape by building Arlington House on the Potomac. A poor student, he emerged as an agricultural reformer and sought-after Federalist orator. He championed the plights of Irish Americans and war veterans. An important memoirist, he wrote well-received theatrical works and produced paintings rich in historical detail. Inheriting much of the vast Custis fortune, he also became the enslaver of more than 200 people. The slow march toward their emancipation became the central struggle of his life, particularly after his daughter's 1831 marriage to Robert E. Lee. This first full-length biography of Custis offers a 21st century reappraisal of life that dramatically bridged the American Revolution and the Civil War.

Arlington House, the Robert E. Lee Memorial
Arlington House, the Robert E. Lee Memorial

Author: Charles Fisher

Publisher:

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 298

ISBN-13:

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"The purpose of this Historic Structure Report is to function as a central repository of information, analysis and conclusion resulting from the investigation of the North Dependency (North Servant's Quarters) at Arlington House, the Robert E. Lee Memorial, by National Park Service (NPS) historians and their associated consultants in 2002 and 2003. Based on a resulting understanding of the history, appearance, and use of the structure over time (with particular emphasis on the period around 1860), this document will also propose an appropriate restoration program that will enable the NPS to better interpret the building, its occupants and functions during the period of significance."--Statement of purpose (p. iii.).

F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Beautiful and Damned"
F. Scott Fitzgerald's

Author: William Blazek

Publisher: LSU Press

Published: 2022-10-19

Total Pages: 301

ISBN-13: 0807178616

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F. Scott Fitzgerald’s second novel, The Beautiful and Damned, has frequently been dismissed as an outlier and curiosity in his oeuvre, a transitional work from the coming-of-age plot of This Side of Paradise to the masterful critique of American aspiration in The Great Gatsby. The Beautiful and Damned belongs to a genre that is widely misunderstood, the “bright young things” novel in which spoiled and wealthy characters succumb to decay because of their privilege and lack of purpose. Set between 1913 and 1922, Fitzgerald’s longest novel touches on many of the decisive issues that mark the passage from the Gilded Age and the Progressive Era into the Jazz Age: conspicuous consumption, income inequality, yellow journalism, the Great War, the rise of the movie industry, automobile travel, Wall Street stock scams, immigration and xenophobia, and the fixation with youth and aging. Published to coincide with the novel’s centennial in 2022, this collection approaches The Beautiful and Damned for its insights more than its faults. Prominent Fitzgerald scholars analyze major themes and reveal unappreciated issues with attention to history, biography, literary influence, gender studies, and narratology. While acknowledging the novel’s shortcomings, the essayists illustrate that The Beautiful and Damned has much more to say about its milieu than previously recognized. This collection provides a guide for understanding Fitzgerald’s aims while demonstrating the richness of ideas that this novel explores, alongside the anxieties and ambitions that reverberate within it.

The Politics of Mourning
The Politics of Mourning

Author: Micki McElya

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2016-08-15

Total Pages: 282

ISBN-13: 0674974069

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Pulitzer Prize Finalist Winner of the John Brinckerhoff Jackson Book Prize Winner of the Sharon Harris Book Award Finalist, Jefferson Davis Award of the American Civil War Museum Arlington National Cemetery is one of America’s most sacred shrines, a destination for millions who tour its grounds to honor the men and women of the armed forces who serve and sacrifice. It commemorates their heroism, yet it has always been a place of struggle over the meaning of honor and love of country. Once a showcase plantation, Arlington was transformed by the Civil War, first into a settlement for the once enslaved, and then into a memorial for Union dead. Later wars broadened its significance, as did the creation of its iconic monument to universal military sacrifice: the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. As Arlington took its place at the center of the American story, inclusion within its gates became a prerequisite for claims to national belonging. This deeply moving book reminds us that many brave patriots who fought for America abroad struggled to be recognized at home, and that remembering the past and reckoning with it do not always go hand in hand. “Perhaps it is cliché to observe that in the cities of the dead we find meaning for the living. But, as McElya has so gracefully shown, such a cliché is certainly fitting of Arlington.” —American Historical Review “A wonderful history of Arlington National Cemetery, detailing the political and emotional background to this high-profile burial ground.” —Choice

On Hallowed Ground
On Hallowed Ground

Author: Robert M. Poole

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published: 2010-11-08

Total Pages: 369

ISBN-13: 0802715494

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Documents the founding of the monument cemetery on the former family plantation of Robert E. Lee, revealing how the site once intended for the burials of indigent soldiers became a national resting place of honor throughout the subsequent century.