A Golden Haze Of Memory: The Making Of Historic Charleston

A Golden Haze of Memory: The Making of Historic Charleston

Charleston, South Carolina, today enjoys a reputation as a destination city for cultural and heritage tourism. In A Golden Haze of Memory, Stephanie E. Yuhl looks back to the crucial period between 1920 and 1940, when local leaders developed Charleston's trademark image as "America's Most Historic City."Eager to assert the national value of their regional cultural traditions and to situate Charleston as a bulwark against the chaos of modern America, these descendants of old-line families downplayed Confederate associations and emphasized the city's colonial and early national prominence. They created a vibrant network of individual artists, literary figures, and organizations--such as the all-white Society for the Preservation of Negro Spirituals--that nurtured architectural preservation, art, literature, and tourism while appropriating African American folk culture. In the process, they translated their selective and idiosyncratic personal, familial, and class memories into a collective identity for the city.The Charleston this group built, Yuhl argues, presented a sanitized yet highly marketable version of the American past. Their efforts invited attention and praise from outsiders while protecting social hierarchies and preserving the political and economic power of whites. Through the example of this colorful southern city, Yuhl posits a larger critique about the use of heritage and demonstrates how something as intangible as the recalled past can be transformed into real political, economic, and social power.Review"Help[s] unravel the complicated intentions in the cycles of creation and remembrance that have shaped Charleston across two centuries."-- "Journal of Architectural Historians""Provides a real sense of Charleston's relationship with the rest of the nation. . . . Significantly deepens our understanding of how historical memory was both created and deployed in a southern city that provided a model for similar work across the region."-- "Journal of Southern History""A model memory study that could be duplicated in a region often focused on itself and its illustrious past."-- "South Carolina Historical Magazine"aProvides a real sense of Charlestonas relationship with the rest of the nation. . . . Significantly deepens our understanding of how historical memory was both created and deployed in a southern city that provided a model for similar work across the region.a-- "Journal of Southern History"_Provides a real sense of Charleston_s relationship with the rest of the nation. . . . Significantly deepens our understanding of how historical memory was both created and deployed in a southern city that provided a model for similar work across the region._- "Journal of Southern History"ReviewYuhl's study of the local elite's shaping and uses of history in Charleston between the First and Second World Wars is well conceived, broadly researched, and nicely phrased. A fine book.--David Moltke-Hansen, President and CEO, Historical Society of PennsylvaniaFrom the Inside FlapYuhl examines elite white artists, literary figures, and cultural groups in Charleston between 1920 and 1940 who nurtured a sanitzed version of southern history through their promotion of architectural preservation, art, literature, African American folk culture, and heritage tourism.From the Back CoverYuhl examines elite white artists, literary figures, and cultural groups in Charleston between 1920 and 1940 who nurtured a sanitzed version of southern history through their promotion of architectural preservation, art, literature, African American folk culture, and heritage tourism.About the AuthorStephanie E. Yuhl is associate professor of history at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts.