This week’s reading was the first
half of The Power of Place Urban Landscapes as Public History by Dolores
Hayden. It consists of three chapters;
Contested Terrain, Urban Landscape History: The Sense of Place and the Politics
of Space, and Place Memory and Urban Preservation. Chapter one, Contested Terrain, talked about
controversies surrounding urban landscapes and what historical landmarks therein
to preserve. A thought provoking quote
from page 7 in the book is “Centuries of neglect of ethnic history have
generated a tide of protest—where are the Native American, African American,
Latino, and Asian American landmarks?
Gender involves similar, interconnected questions. Why are so few
moments in women’s history remembered as part of preservation?”
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| Suffrage Statue of Lucretia Mott, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Photo courtesy of the National Women's History Museum |
Chapter two’s title is Urban
Landscape History: The Sense of Place and the Politics of Space. It spoke about how urban landscapes have many
layers of social history, based on race, gender, ethnicity or economic
standing.
Chapter three is entitled Place
Memory and Urban Preservation and it addresses the memories that are connected
with places. By fully delving into a
complete social history of multiple buildings it allows the possibility of
better reaching the public. This can be
challenging, as “All of the participants in such a process transcend their
traditional roles”. (p 76) It requires being able to step outside your comfort
zone and work with people you don’t usually have contact with.
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| Photo courtesy of Louisville.com |
Good Blog. I was lucky to be born in Ritzville where short of an act from Congress, everything has stayed the same. They do have a Museum there and an old Carnegie Library which is pretty popular to the people there. The Wheatfields and the scabrock will always be there and it should be. When she writes about identity, that is what Ritzville is all about. Some people write poetry about places like that.
ReplyDeleteThe pictures that you included added to your post, they were not distracting to the viewer. You did a good job of summarizing the first section of the book.
ReplyDeleteGood thought provoking quote. There is a lot of history that is untold or needs to be discovered about the stories of women and minority populations that are now become the majority in these large, urbanized centers of society.
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