| International Standard Book Number |
9781625348975
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| International Standard Book Number |
1625348983
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| International Standard Book Number |
9781625348982
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| Personal Name |
Gray, Stephanie (Historian)
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| Title Statement |
Restoring America : historic preservation and the New Deal / Stephanie Gray.
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| Production, Publication, Distribution, Manufacture, and Copyright Notice |
Amherst, MA : University of Massachusetts Press, 2025.
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| Physical Description |
xiv, 287 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm
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| Content Type |
text txt rdacontent
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| Media Type |
unmediated n rdamedia
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| Carrier Type |
volume rdacarrier
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| Series Statement |
Public history in historical perspective.
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| Bibliography, Etc. Note |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
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| Formatted Contents Note |
Introduction -- America's preservation impulse before and during the New Deal -- The "compelling romance" of the Old South: the Dock Street Theatre, Charleston, South Carolina -- The Puritan past at the Old Stone House: the Henry Whitfield State Museum, Guilford, Connecticut -- Cultivating the Minnesota frontier: the Charles A. Lindbergh Boyhood Home and State Park, Little Falls, Minnesota -- Maverick's Pan-American vision: La Villita Historic Arts Village, San Antonio, Texas -- Conclusion -- Appendix A. "Historic shrines" restored by the Works Progress Administration -- Appendix B. National Park Service restoration policies, May 19, 1937.
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| Summary, Etc. |
"During the Great Depression, Americans employed historic preservation as a tool to address the political, economic, and social upheavals of the era. Inspired by the Roosevelt administration’s unprecedented support of federal arts projects, US politicians, architects, laborers, artisans, and local boosters skillfully used New Deal funds to restore, mythologize, and politicize the “historic shrines” in their communities. Restoring America illustrates how and why Americans turned to historic preservation as a strategy for managing both political realities and ambitions. Stephanie Gray presents four thoroughly researched and diverse case studies: a colonial theater in the Deep South, a Puritan minister’s home in New England, aviator Charles Lindbergh's modest farmhouse and parklands of the Upper Midwest, and a multi-layered Spanish-German-Mexican arts village in the Central South. Collectively, these examples show how the restoration of old places emerged as a popular form of cultural production, an instrument of economic reconstruction, and a striking expression of political theater during the Depression. Moreover, these New Deal preservation projects make evident that any exercise in physically preserving the past is both conservative and progressive, reactive and proactive. Restoring America contends that the federally funded and locally driven preservation initiatives of the 1930s and 1940s can help inform contemporary public history debates over the politics of commemoration and imagine possibilities for future preservation practice"-- Provided by publisher.
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| Subject Added Entry - Topical Term |
Historic preservation - Case studies. - United States
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| Subject Added Entry - Topical Term |
New Deal, 1933-1939 - Case studies.
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| Subject Added Entry - Topical Term |
Historic buildings - Conservation and restoration
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| Index Term-Genre/Form |
Case studies.
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| Location |
Mary Meuser PL 363.69 GRA 30091000872716
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