Memory As A Cultural System - Schwartz

Memory as a Cultural System: Abraham Lincoln in World War II
Author(s): Barry Schwartz

Source: American Sociological Review, Vol. 61, No. 5 (Oct., 1996), pp. 908-927
Published by: American Sociological Association
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MEMORY AS A CULTURAL SYSTEM:
ABRAHAM LINCOLN IN WORLD WAR II*
Barry Schwartz
University of Georgia
Studies of how societies preserve the past have focused on the "social frames
of memory." This study of Abraham Lincoln during World War II extends a
semiotic interpretation of culture as it focuses on "memory as a social
frame." Memories invoked in the context of a present crisis are rooted in
generational experience. One-third of all Americans living in 1940 were born
during the late nineteenth century, when Civil War resentments were fading
and remembrances of Lincoln were more positive and vivid than ever. This
generation understood the meaning of World War II by "keying" it to the
Civil War. Patterned arrays of images of Lincoln were invoked by local and
federal agencies to clarify the purpose of World War II, legitimate the prepa-
rations for it, and then to orient, inspire, and console the people who fought
it. As a model for the present and of the present, images of Lincoln com-
prised a cultural system that rationalized the experience of war. I compare
and contrast memory as a cultural system with constructionist theories of
collective memory and discuss it in light of the erosion of American society's
grand narratives.
he 50th anniversaryof WorldWarII has In this paper I refer to World War II as a

awakened many memories and provided site of memory. My objective is not to un-
new lessons on how we learn about and dis- derstand memory of crisis, but memory in a
tort the past. In television, radio, magazine, time of crisis. As I have studied Abraham
and newspaper accounts of the war and its Lincoln in the American mind, from 1865 to
aftermath, we observe memory as commemo- the present, images of Lincoln in the early
ration and history, social networks as reposi- 1940s emerged as distinctive, not because
tories of memory, the partial or complete for- they differed greatly in substance from ear-
getting of events, official memories and lier images but because they were unusually
counter memories, successful and failed in- pervasive and engaging. Since crisis provides
terpretations of the past, and the meanings nations with strong incentives for invoking
and functions of commemorative symbolism. the past (Bellah 1975:141), the function of
This list testifies to widespread interest in images of Lincoln during World War II war-
World War II as an object of memory. rants close examination. Halbwachs ([1925]
* 1952) and his successors throw little light on
Direct correspondence to Barry Schwartz,
Department of Sociology, University of Georgia, this matter: They have discovered much
Athens, GA 30602 (cmsbarry@uga.cc.uga.edu).I about "the social frames of memory";I wish
began this research while a Fellow at the National to know more about memory as a social
Humanities Center, Research Triangle Park, frame.
North Carolina. I am grateful for financial sup- Concentrationon the images of Lincoln in
port provided by Delta Delta Delta. I continued World War II extends Geertz's semiotic in-
the research as a Smithsonian Institution Senior terpretationof culture to the realm of collec-
Fellow. I also benefited from comments by tive memory. Geertz's inquiries into selected
Michael Schudson, Gary Fine, Howard Schuman,
articulations of culture-"Religion as a Cul-
Robin Wagner-Pacifici, James Dowd, an ASR
Deputy Editor, and the ASR anonymous review- tural System" (1973b:87-125), "Ideology as
ers. [Reviewers acknowledged by the author in- a CulturalSystem" (1973c: 193-233), "Com-
clude Diane L. Barthell, Robert N. Bellah, and mon Sense as a CulturalSystem" (1983a:73-
Charles Tilly. -ED.] 94), and "Art as a Cultural System" (1983b:
908 American Sociological Review, 1996, Vol. 61 (October:908-927)

MEMORY AS A CULTURAL SYSTEM 909
94-120)-define culture as an organization (1992) on "official" and "vernacular"mem-

of symbolic patterns on which people rely to ory" in the United States (also see Tuchman
make sense of their experience. Articulating and Fortin 1989; Ames 1993; Baigell 1993;
a symbolic pattern of commemoration, I de- Boyarim 1994; Gillis 1994 ). A second strand
fine "memory as a cultural system." But of the politics of memory literature assumes
while Geertz insists on generalizing within that power is diffused rather than concen-
cases rather than across cases, I locate im- trated and that collective memories emerge
ages of Lincoln as they appear across cases, out of a context of cross-cutting coalitions,
moving from World War II to subsequent networks, and enterprises. Writings on the
wars and other national emergencies, bring- fate of artistic (Lang and Lang 1990) and
ing together resemblances and differences presidential (Fine 1996) reputations, Holo-
under a single analytic framework. The re- caust memories (Irwin-Zarecka1994), place-
sult of this effort is an expansion of the way naming and monument-making(Gregory and
collective memory is presently conceived. Lewis 1988; Zelinsky 1988; Wagner-Pacifici
and Schwartz 1991), and the organization of
museums (Barthel 1996) all representefforts
THE SOCIAL FRAMES OF MEMORY
to link memory to pluralistic networks of in-
Recent research on collective memory con- terest and power.
ceives the past as a social construction that Whether focusing on generational world
reflects the problems and concerns of the views, the politics of memory, or both, re-
present. Most of this research falls into two search on collective memory offers impor-
overlapping categories. In the first category, tant insights. It shows how beliefs about the
eras and generations appearas ever-changing past are shaped by the circumstances and
communities of memory. The Holy Land's problems of current society and how differ-
changing sacred sites (Halbwachs 1941), the ent elements of the past become more or less
recovery of the past in early and late twenti- relevant as these circumstancesand problems
eth-century Israel (Zerubavel 1995), the ebb change. Memory thus becomes a social fact
and flow of Holocaust memories in Ger- as it is made and remade to serve changing
many, France, and Poland (Friedlander1992; societal interests and needs. That collective
Koonz 1994), age cohort differences in the memory is socially rooted is critical to the
perception of critical events in recent Ameri- sociology of culture, but this insight alone
can history (Schuman and Scott 1987), the exaggerates the malleability of the past and
changing images of Christ (Pelikan 1985), fails to capture the full significance of col-
Thomas Jefferson (Peterson 1960), George lective memory. True, some writers take
Washington (Schwartz 1991), the American pains to show that reality limits what com-
Revolution (Kammen 1978)-these analyses munities of memory can construct (Schwartz
are representativeof currentefforts to under- 1982; Schudson 1989a; Irwin-Zarecka 1994)
stand the history of memory by connecting it and that memories supposedly rooted in the
to its social and experiential roots (also see needs of the present have been remarkably
Connelly 1977; Kammen 1991; Peterson stable across generations (Schwartz 1990,
1994; Ducharme and Fine 1995.) 1991). Their qualifications, however, are
The second body of research includes gen- made within the same theoretical framework
erational comparisons but focuses on mem- as the excesses they criticize. These writers
ory as a contested object of differently em- assert that the past is less malleable and
powered communities. One strand of this changeable than conventionally believed, yet
"politics of memory" literature traces con- they continue to portray it in conventional
ceptions of the past to an alleged dominant ways-as a product of institutionally based
ideology supported by the privileged to pools of interests, resources, and experi-
maintain their hegemony. Representative ences. The past simply appears as a different
statements include Hobsbawm (1983) on the kind of dependent variable-a result of soci-
invention of tradition as a mode of social etal continuities rather than discontinuities,
control during Europe's democratic revolu- a manifestation of bygone realities rather
tions, Alonso (1988) on state histories and than a construction based on present reali-
counter histories in Mexico, and Bodnar ties. These authors have made no theoretical

910 AMERICAN SOCIOLOGICAL REVIEW
progress beyond the distortions they have literature, by contrast, is filled with artistic,
sought to avoid. musical, poetic, and biographical works that
sustain the past as an object of reverence and
emulation; however, an analytical account of
TWO FACES OF MEMORY these materials-one that provides reference
Collective memory, like all cultural systems, points for description, comparison, and gen-
is a pattern of "inherited conceptions ex- eralization-does not exist. My concern is
pressed in symbolic forms by means of not to renounce these traditionalapproaches,
which ... [people] communicate, perpetuate, but to incorporate them into a broader and
and develop their knowledge about and atti- more powerful analytic framework.
tudes toward life" (Geertz 1973b:89). Col- I do not start from scratch. References to
lective memory enables us to engage social the orientationalpower of collective memory
life in at least two ways. First, collective have appeared in Mannheim's ([1928] 1952:
memory is a model of society-a reflection 29-30) commentary on vivid historical
of its needs, problems, fears, mentality, and events persisting as points of contemporary
aspirations. Second, collective memory is a reference, Cooley's analysis of emulation of
modelfor society-a programthat defines its past heroes ([1902] 1964:293-316), and
experience, articulates its values and goals, Mead's assertion that the "present can only
and provides cognitive, affective, and moral be known and interpretedin the past which it
orientation for realizing them. Collective involves" (1938:94; also see Maines, Sugrue,
memory affects social reality by reflecting it and Katovich 1983:163-64). More recent ref-
and shaping it. erences to this idea appear in Shils's (1981)
The distinction between memory as a conception of tradition as a constituent of
"model of" and "model for" society is an present actions and Heilman's (1982:62-63)
analytic, not empirical, distinction; both as- ethnography of faithful Jews invoking the
pects of it are realized in every act of remem- past as a means of reforming and completing
brance. Memories must express currentprob- ("traditionalizing") the present (also see
lems before they can program ways to deal Nisbet 1975). The most current statements
with them. We cannot be oriented by a past include Bellah et al. (1985) on "communities
in which we fail to see ourselves. On the of memory,"Lowenthal (1985:41-49) on the
other hand, it is memory's programmaticrel- past as a source of identity, guidance, and
evance that makes its expressive function enrichment, Rusen (1989:44) on traditional
significant: We have no reason to look for memories as "indispensable elements of ori-
ourselves in a past that does not already orientation" in historical consciousness,
ent our lives. Still, the analytic distinction is Schuman and Rieger (1992) on the uses of
important because it underscores memory's past wars (Vietnam and WorldWarII) as his-
intrinsic dualism. In its reflective (model of) torical analogies to sustain supportfor or op-
aspect, memory is an expressive symbol-a position to the Persian Gulf War, and Olick
language, as it were, for articulating present (1994) on the past as a "durableresource"for
predicaments; in its second (model for) as- underwritingtradition and identity.
pect, memory is an orienting symbol-a map Each of these writings recognizes, but does
that gets us through these predicaments by not demonstrate, the past as a program for
relating where we are to where we have been. the present. None shows precisely how depth
Memory is at once a language and a map, in time, tradition, and memory affects the
a reflector of and guide for the present; yet, way people interpret what is happening to
this dualism is incidental to our knowledge. them. None offers a conception of the sym-
Sociological literature is filled with rich ac- bolic structuresthat connect the social roots
counts of how collective memory symboli- of collective memory to its social functions.
cally encodes and reproduces class conflicts, I offer a tentative model of this connection.
interest structures, and mentalities, but it The primary aspect of this model, derived
contains little information about (and few from Geertz's "thick description" (1973a:3-
concepts to describe) memory as an entity in 32), shows how individuals locate the sym-
itself-an ordered system of symbols that bolic structures of memory and use them to
makes experience meaningful. Humanistic construe their experience. The secondary as-

pect of the model is derived from Parson's tion of Goffman's conception is less extreme.
AGIL paradigm(Parsons and Smelser 1956). A primary event, as I narrowly define it, is
Parsons stipulates that all social systems face not any event that is real, originating, and in-
four problems: adaptation-securing resour- fluential. Rather, a primary event is one that
ces from the environment and distributing unifies and animates a society, orients or re-
them throughout the system; goal attain- orients it in fundamental ways. Instead of
ment-mobilizing resources to achieve sys- comparing primary events to copies, then, I
tem goals; integration-coordinating rela- consider how participants in one primary
tionships among the system's units and ac- event, the Second World War, interprettheir
tors; and latent pattern maintenance-tension experience by aligning it to another primary
management-supporting cultural value pat- event, the Civil War.
terns by motivating actors to play their roles Keyingis the mechanismof this interpretive
in the system while controlling individual process. Keying transforms the meaning of
and system tensions. Collective memory is activities understoodin terms of one primary
located in society's "latent pattern mainte- frameworkby comparingthem with activities
nance" subsystem, whose agents, represent- understood in terms of another. Franklin
ing both the state and civil society, sustain Roosevelt's death in April 1945, for example,
cultural values by invoking the past and re- assumes new meaning when keyed to
counting its grand narratives. Lincoln's death in April 1865. Keying is more
thana new word for analogical thinking, more
than a way individuals mentally organize
MEMORY AS A SOCIAL FRAME
their social experiences (Goffman 1974:40-
My model of collective memory is meant to 82). Keying transforms memory into a cul-
be suggestive, not definitive; but it rests on a tural system, not because it consists of invis-
strong premise: "Every conscious perception ible mental operations,but because it matches
is ... an act of recognition, a pairing in publicly accessible (i.e., symbolic) models of
which an object (or an event, an act, an emo- the past (written narratives,pictorial images,
tion) is identified by placing it against the statues, motion pictures, music, and songs) to
background of an appropriate symbol" the experiences of the present. Keying ar-
(Geertz 1973c:215). Two concepts, "fram- rangesculturalsymbols into a publicly visible
ing" and "keying," explicate collective me- discourse that flows through the organiza-
mory as a "recognizing" and "pairing" actions and institutionsof the social world. Key-
complishment. ing is communicative movement-talk, writ-
The cardinal concept is framing. Shared ing, image- and music-making-that con-
memories become appropriate symbols- nects otherwise separaterealms of history.
backgrounds for the perception and compre- As models of society, past events are keyed
hension of current events-when organized to the present; as models for society, past
into what Goffman (1974) called a "primary events are keyed by the present. The distinc-
framework":primary because ". . . applica- tion raises four questions: What are we re-
tion of such a framework or perspective is ferring to behaviorally when we define col-
seen by those who apply it as not depending lective memory as a model for rather than a
on or harking back to some prior or 'origi- model of society? Under what conditions and
nal' interpretation;indeed a primary frame- for what purposes is the past invoked as a
work is one that is seen as rendering what frame for understanding the present? What
would otherwise be a meaningless aspect of agencies conduct memory work, and what is
the scene into something that is meaningful" their relation to society at large? And what
(p. 21). A framework is primary if its exist- must memory work accomplish before it can
ence and meaning precede the event it inter- be said to have been effective?
prets. Thus, Lincoln's assassination (primary
frame) can later be "transcribed"into a stage
IMAGE MAKING
play or film (copies), but the relation is
nonreciprocal. Only radical constructionists I proceed without knowing what individuals
would consider the assassination to be a tran- thought and felt about AbrahamLincoln dur-
scription of the play or film. My modifica- ing World War II; I only know how artists,

writers, musicians, poets, propagandists, paper archives and microfilms, the U.S. Na-
politicians, presidents, movie-makers, edi- tional Archives and Records Administration,
tors, and local leaders depicted him. Since Still Picture Branch, and the Libraryof Con-
these image-makers were socialized by the gress Prints and Photographs Department. I
communities they endeavored to reach, how- will cite these sources as I refer to the images
ever, their depictions reflected as well as I drew from them. I obtained most of the im-
shaped their audience's conception of Lin- ages from the Abraham Lincoln Museum,
coln. Their depictions are at once parts of the Harrogate,Tennessee. When contextualized,
public conception and vehicles for coming these pictorial data help us to see Lincoln
into contact with it. But it is not enough to through the eyes of the WorldWar II genera-
know the content of this conception, for Lin- tion and to understandthis generation's val-
coln image-making in the early 1940s was ues, attitudes, and emotional concerns.
never an end in itself. Lincoln matteredto his
interpreters and their audiences in the con-
text of war. Lincoln's images revealed his MATCHING CRISES
role in the way Americans interpreted war- In 1940, the eve of the war, almost 44 mil-
time events. That this role can be studied ob- lion Americans-one third of the popula-
jectively, outside the mind, is evident, since tion-had been born in the late nineteenth
it was common access to a collective symbol century (U.S. Bureau of the Census 1975:
structurethat allowed agents to produce, and 15), when Lincoln was still fresh in the
audiences to understand, the iconic, verbal, minds of their parents and teachers. At this
ritual, and musical objects on which this time, memories of Lincoln had a particularly
study is based. These objects were not ran- positive cast. Since most of the people alive
domly sampled, but they have been seen, during the Civil War had died, animosities
read, and heard by a large percentage of the against Lincoln had diminished and his repu-
American population. I wish to know what tation abruptlyincreased (Schwartz 1990).
these objects meant-what it was in the re- The WorldWarII generation grew up amid
petitive display of commemorative words stories that not only idealized Lincoln but
and pictures that was communicated in the also made him relevant to the understanding
heat of war. and solving of their problems. At the begin-
I wish to know, not to exaggerate, Lin- ning of the century these problems included
coln's symbolic role. It is not bias in my excessive concentration of wealth resulting
sampling of Lincoln images, however, that from the industrial revolution. Legislation
makes significant exaggeration a concern; it against privilege and monopoly and a pro-
is the absence of comparative reference to gressive (redistributive) income tax amend-
other eras and other historical figures. Con- ment were designed to diffuse economic
sidered alone, Lincoln's shadow seems power. Anti-corruption legislation and Con-
longer and wider than it was in reality. As stitutional amendmentsproviding for univer-
my goal is to explore the framing mecha- sal suffrage and the direct election of U.S.
nisms at play in the general case, however, I Senators were designed to diffuse political
attend to Abraham Lincoln as one instance power. These reforms were crucial to the
among others. Lincoln's image would be of Progressive Era's "moral movement of de-
limited use if it differed fundamentally from mocracy" (Hofstadter 1963:15), which
others invoked during the war. The unique would expand and mature during the New
aspects of Lincoln's case, on the other hand, Deal. Over this 40-year (1900-1940) period,
must be appreciated. Lincoln was not the an era in which the economic welfare of the
sole object of wartime invocation, but he was individual became a concern of the state,
the most common-the one in which the dy- Lincoln remained a symbol of the people's
namics of memory work were most visible. dignity while also becoming a symbol of the
Pictorial imagery, including cartoons and people's rights. Correspondingly,his renown
posters, played an importantrole in the war- grew and peaked.
time representationof Lincoln and my analy- Lincoln's symbolic role in the early 1940s
sis of memory work makes frequent use of was shaped not only by the early twentieth-
them. I obtained these materials from news- century's political and economic environ-

ment but also by the cultural environment in Before the war, Lincoln's prominence was
which the World War II generation was so- manifest in visual as well as printed media.
cialized. At the turn of the twentieth century, Two screenplays, Young Man Lincoln (1937)
historical figures were still revered and held and Abe Lincoln in Illinois (1940) (Lincoln
up as models for instructing the young. was played by Henry Fonda and Raymond
Charles Horton Cooley ([1902] 1964), then Massey respectively), had appeared prior to
one of the country's distinguished social psy- the war.Another (1939) film, Mr Smith Goes
chologists, wrote extensively about the to Washington(featuringJames Stewart)con-
"emulation" of great men, freely identified tains pivotal references to Lincoln and dra-
his own heroes (which included Abraham matic scenes at the Lincoln Memorial. On
Lincoln), considered them essential to his stage, too, the Lincoln theme was prominent.
achievements and moral character, and gen- The (1938) stageplay version of Abe Lincoln
eralized his feelings about them: "As hero- in Illinois had won the Pulitzer Prize, while
worship becomes more imaginative, it Prelude to Glory (1941), a play about Lin-
merges insensibly into that devotion to ideal coln's youth (written with Works Progress
persons that is called religious" (p. 314). De- Administration support), became a great
votion to Abraham Lincoln as an ideal per- Broadway success.
son cut across class, ethnic, racial, and reli- Lincoln's symbolic power was greatest in
gious lines and was one of the sentiments the northernUnited States, but his stature in
that members of an otherwise fractious soci- the South should not be underestimated.
ety shared. The 1943 tune, "Here We Come, Southern communities lacked the ritual ap-
Mr. President,"for example, depicts Franklin paratuses and occasions that had institution-
Roosevelt as "FatherFranklinD" (the recol- alized the memory of Lincoln in the North,
lection of "FatherAbraham"obscuring Roo- but Southerners were not isolated from the
sevelt's patrician roots) and links three gen- rest of the nation. Southernersand Northern-
erations through three wars-World War II, ers saw the same movies, heard the same ra-
World War I, and the Civil War:"Ourfathers dio broadcasts, and taught history to their
wore the khaki/our grandfathers wore the children from the same textbooks. Thus, in
gray or blue/and gladly we will do the things/ NORC's July 1945 survey, Lincoln was
that they once had to do." Roosevelt's sup- named one of the "two or three greatest men
porters also described the New Deal as the in American history"by 61 percent of North-
Second Emancipation and claimed that Lin- ern Whites and 44 percent of Southern
coln was the first New Deal president (Sand- Whites respectively. Southern Whites, how-
burg 1934; Jones 1974). ever, named Lincoln as often as they named
That Lincoln was "good for thinking" George Washington (43 percent).
about World War II is also suggested in Similarity between World War II and the
newspaper, magazine, and oratorical topics. Civil Warcannot explain what made Lincoln
Between 1940 and 1944, The New YorkTimes so memorable in the early 1940s. World War
printed 215 articles about Lincoln; between I furnished much better logistical and tech-
1990 and 1994, for comparison, it printed 36 nical examples (including air power) than
articles. During these same periods the Read- did the Civil War.Also, most Americans had
ers Guide lists 128 and 61 articles respec- lived through World War I as children or
tively. Likewise, the Congressional Record adults and thought about it constantly throu-
lists 131 entries on Lincoln during the early ghout the four years of the next war. On the
1940s and 26 entries in the early 1990s.1 other hand, a Gallup survey (1937) showed
that 70 percent of Americans believed that
I Between 1915 and 1919 the New YorkTimes
United States participation in World War I
published 164 articles about Lincoln. The Read- was a mistake (Gallup 1972:54). The NORC
ers Guide listed 92 articles; the Congressional (1945) survey showed Woodrow Wilson, the
Record, 61 entries. Thus, the number of items
published during World War II was considerably president during World War I, being named
greater than the number published during World as one of the two or three greatestAmericans
War I. The reasons for this difference are com- by only 8 percent of the population. Thus,
plex, but include the elevation of Lincoln's pres- WorldWarI was a living memory, not a self-
tige during the Great Depression. defining frame memory. It was the American

Civil War (the "Second American Revolu- extraordinary executive powers. The U.S.
tion," as McPherson [1991] calls it), not Constitution vests such powers in the presi-
World War I, that established the democracy dency, but Edward Foley, counsel for the
for which the World War II generation Treasury Department, used no legal argu-
fought. Historical distinction, in turn, rests ments to defend Roosevelt against charges of
on moral significance. Morality is the "cul- dictatorship. Recognizing that legal author-
tural code" to which a historical event must ity is rooted in tradition, "the sanctity of the
fit rhetorically if it is to become a model for order and the attendantpowers of control as
current events (Smith 1991:191). Civil War they have been handed down from the past
memories include the clearest examples of and always existed" (Weber 1947:341), Fo-
moral virtue, like endurance in the face of ley invoked historical, not legal, precedent:
great loss; moral goals, like emancipation "Our great presidents never hesitated to do
and the preservation of the union; and moral whatever was necessary for the preservation
exemplars, like Abraham Lincoln. This is of the union," and he supported his claim
why the Civil War rather than World War I with a detailed list of the powers Abraham
has furnishedAmerican civil religion with its Lincoln assumed during the Civil War. On
themes of death, sacrifice, and rebirth (Bel- his own authority Lincoln called out state
lah 1970:177-78). This is why Lincoln's im- militias, incorporated them into the regular
age, not Wilson's, legitimated, oriented, army, recruited volunteers, built ships, im-
clarified, inspired, and consoled throughout posed blockades, obtained credit, restricted
World War II. freedom of speech and suspended legal pro-
To legitimate unpopularwartimemeasures, tections against arbitraryarrest and impris-
orient the people to prolonged sacrifice, onment (New YorkTimes, June 28, 1941, p.
clarify the purpose of war, inspire men to I 1). Lincoln had provided a model for presi-
fight it in the face of defeat, and console the dential conduct during national danger. "Lin-
bereaved-these functions were essential to coln, the greatest of our democrats, was also
war mobilization. It was not enough for the our first dictator" (New YorkTimes Maga-
state to declare war, trainan armedforce, and zine, March 2, 1941, Section 7, p. 23). Three
orient the economy toward war priorities; years later Lincoln was re-elected president
there also had to be "pattern maintenance" in a fair and open contest.
machinery (Parsons and Smelser 1956; also Why should Lincoln's presidency be in-
see Alexander 1982; Munch 1985) to ensure voked to begin with? Roosevelt's supporters
that individual citizens were sufficiently mo- could have justified his actions simply by ar-
tivated to play their parts, even in the face of guing that they were in the national interest.
hardship and loss. As American society mo- Invoking Lincoln could have complicated the
bilized, the state, the mass media, schools, matter, for it raised the question of whether
and other institutions whose function it is to the present situation warranted the extreme
maintainculturalvalues, scanned the past and measures Roosevelt took. But everyone knew
transmittedimages that framed the war's pur- the difference between the Civil Warand the
pose and sustained the will to achieve it. At fighting then going on in Europe and Asia.
some times and in some places this function Roosevelt's supporters were not trying to
was insignificant, but everywhere it was evi- perform a technical analysis, but to connect
dent-even before the shooting war began. his measures to the sacred narrative of the
nation. Keying preparations for a second
World War to the history of the Civil War
HISTORICAL DISCOURSES was an ideological exercise, not to be as-
sessed in terms of historical evidence but by
Legitimation
its ability to grasp and communicate realities
Franklin Roosevelt and his spokesmen justi- that the language of history cannot express.
fied preparations for global war by clothing
them in reminders of Lincoln and the Civil
Orientation
War. In May 1941, six months before Pearl
Harbor was attacked, Roosevelt declared an There would be no reason to invoke the past,
unlimited national emergency and assumed Mead believed (1929, 1932), if some signifi-

cant problem were not disrupting normal pat- for us to think about in this day and age"
terns of life or effective action. Franklin (Roosevelt 1950:329).
Roosevelt's problem was the public's initial Days later,a New YorkTimeseditorial titled
reluctance to go to war and its ignorance of "ThePresident'sWarning"reproducedpartof
what was needed to win the war once it be- Lincoln's statement. When Roosevelt read
gan. Justifying war mobilization, then, was that statement, the editor explained, he did
only Roosevelt's first task; his second was to not quote from memory. He had the passage
explain war strategy and costs. Before war ready for the reporters, read it grimly, and
was declared, the military had decided that made clear he wanted to see it in the head-
attrition (making the best possible use of su- lines. Roosevelt relied on Lincoln's words
perior manpower to wear down more skillful about an 1862 situation to articulate a 1941
enemies) would be the most reasonable strat- danger,and "the significance of this reminder
egy. It would also be the strategy most diffi- will not be lost on anybody"(New YorkTimes,
cult to implement because it required pro- August 20, 1941, p. 16). Three and a half
longed fighting.2 months later, Pearl Harborwas attacked.
Roosevelt's administration prepared the Fifteen months after Pearl Harbor, in the
public for protracted war in many ways, in- midst of intense fighting, War Secretary
cluding the keying of present to past military Henry Stimson quoted the same Lincoln pas-
situations. On August 16, 1941, two days af- sage in a radio addressjustifying plans to in-
ter meeting with British Prime Minister crease the size of the armed forces. He said
Churchill in the mid-Atlantic and several that "the attitude which Lincoln described
days after the Senate narrowly approved con- manifests itself when we say things which at
scription (even as German and Japanese vic- bottom represent merely wishful thinking or
tories threatened American security), Roos- the dread of personal sacrifices and the de-
evelt (1950) chose a point in a press confer- sire to find a better way out" (New York
ence to go back 80 years and quote Abraham Times, March 10, 1943, p. 4). Stimson be-
Lincoln's assessment of the Union army's lieved that Americans did not understand
progress. After a year of preparations and what it meant to be at war and that no words
skirmishes, Lincoln said, the army's officers could give them a better explanation than
.. . have not buckled down to the determina-
Lincoln's.
tion to fight this war through; for they have got Lincoln's conception of what it would take
the idea into their heads that we are going to to win the Civil Warwas seen by Roosevelt's
get out of this fix somehow by strategy! That's and Stimson's audiences for what it was: a
the word-strategy! General McClellan thinks model for the present-not a "high resolu-
he is going to whip the Rebels by strategy; and tion" model to be mimicked or literally ap-
the army has got the same notion. They have plied to the currentsituation, but a "low reso-
no idea that the war is to be carried on and put lution" model to be used as a guideline for
throughby hard, tough fighting, that it will hurt the molding of attitude and motivation
somebody; and no headway is going to be
made while this delusion lasts." (Lincoln as
(Schudson 1989b:171-72).
quoted by Roosevelt 1950:329)
Clarification
"That is rather an interesting parallel,"
Roosevelt remarked as he looked up from his Invoking Lincoln's memory helped to legiti-
text: "Lincoln's belief that this country mate Roosevelt's assumption of emergency
hadn't yet waked up to the fact that they had powers and to provide orientation on how to
a war to win, and Lincoln saw what had been fight the war. Both legitimation and orienta-
going on. Well, there are quite a lot of things tion key present to past situations through
discourse. Legitimation discourse is about
2 Americans chronically and grossly underesti-
presidential powers in a national emergency;
mated the war's duration. Three weeks after the orientation discourse is about mobilization
attack on Pearl Harbor, exactly 50 percent of
Gallup's respondents believed the war would be
for war and strategies for fighting it. And
over in two years or less. Six months later, 61 both discourses concern action. Clarification
percent anticipated the war's lasting for no more discourse, on the other hand, is a hybrid that
than two years (Gallup 1972:318, 336). concerns action and values. It is a pattern

maintenance discourse that dramatizes the Figure 1.

values on which the political, economic, and Let Freedom Ring: Distributed as Posters and Re-
integrative subsystems of society rest, but printed in Newspapers and Magazines, Interprets
bringing these values to bear on public un- World War II by Inserting It into the Grand Nar-
derstanding of the war was problematic. rative of American History
Asked by the December 1942 Gallup Poll
whether they "have a clear idea of what the
war is all about-that is, what we are fight-
ing for," 32 percent of the respondents, a sig-
nificant minority, said they did not (Gallup
1972:359). Clarification of the meaning of
the war was therefore imperative, and no
other homefront task was assumed by as
many different media.
Seven months after the United States en- _ .......... ~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
tered the war, the Office of War Information
distributed posters picturing a resolute Lin-
coln above the last line of his Gettysburg
Address: ". . . that government of the people,
by the people, for the people shall not perish
from the earth."To save democracy-that is
what the war is about. Lincoln, with dark
shading around his face to emphasize the so-
lemnity of the hour, implores the viewer: LETvJEM
"Back the Attack!"
To visualize democracy, printmakers and
cartoonists have always exploited images of
slavery. These images are central to Amer- Source: U.S. Office of War Information,Let Freedom
ica's sense of its own being because slavery Ring, 1944. Poster. The Abraham Lincoln Museum,
Harrogate,Tennessee. Photocourtesyof the AbrahamLin-
constitutes the negative term that gives free- coln Museum.
dom and equality their positive sense. News-
papers made this evident. In the cartoon,
"Lincoln and Lebensraum,"a giant-size Ab- frontpage cartoon in the Philadelphia Record
raham Lincoln (Daniel Chester French's (February 12, 1943, p. 1) on Lincoln Day
statue) looks down on a sword-wielding yet keys fascism to slaveholding: Lincoln's em-
puny Adolph Hitler. The inset compares blem, the ax, splits a swastika above the great
Hitler's demand for territorialconcessions to summons (taken from Lincoln's Second In-
American slaveholders' demands for the ex- auguralAddress): "Let Us Strive to Finish the
tension of slavery. World War II is thus con- WorkWe Are In."The caption: "As in 1865-
struedas a continuation of the Civil War.This So in 1943."
key was used time and again. In an editorial As a frame for interpreting World War II,
cartoon, Lincoln stands behind Roosevelt and .Civil War images were reinforced by images
rests his hand on Roosevelt's shoulder above from the American Revolution. In one poster,
the caption, "You have a greater task than I Lincoln's countenance is associated with two
had. Slavery must be removed from the whole revolutionary war scenes: George Washing-
earth." In a train station, an Office of War ton crossing the Delaware and George Wash-
Information poster shows Lincoln's counte- ington at the Battle of Monmouth. The writ-
nance below the famous line from his "House ten message, "Adolph, Have You Ever Read
Divided" speech: "This World Cannot Exist American History?" refers (through time-
Half Slave and Half Free" (National Ar- phased pictures of Lincoln and Washington)
chives, Box 5, PM 5-16-555). In a factory to a traditionalwill to fight. In another illus-
cafeteria, anotherposter uses the same words tration, a war bond advertisement, silhou-
to interpret a vivid scene of Nazi brutality etted profiles of George Washington,
(National Archives, Box 5, PM 5-15-554). A AbrahamLincoln, and Thomas Jefferson are

set against a background of bombers flying tural values and sustain the motivation to de-
off on a mission (see Figure 1). The illustra- fend them-had to work to the upper limits
tion's title, "From Every Mountain Side Let of its capacity.
Freedom Ring," formulates the bombing On December 9, 1941, Franklin Roosevelt
mission's ultimate purpose. declared: "We must share together the bad
State and media iconography in an ethni- news and the good news, the defeats and the
cally divided society were designed to re- victories" (National Archives, Box 5, PM 5-
mind everyone of the values they shared.Re- 56-582). But there was no news of victory,
currently, the word "liberty" appeared. Lib- only of disaster. Federal information offices
erty did not need to be defined, as its power worked around the clock to put Pearl Harbor
lay in its ambiguity-its ability to move dif- into perspective, and one of their first mea-
ferent people in different ways and its easy sures was to ask composers to write patri-
alignment with different symbolic structures. otic songs to boost morale. To know what
Polish immigrants and their children, for ex- must be done, concretely, to inspire a lis-
ample, contributedreadily to the war, but tra- tener is to know which symbols best formu-
ditional American symbols made sense to late the purposes and emotions of war.
them only when joined to traditionalsymbols Some composers knew this better than oth-
of their own. Thus, a 1943 Lincoln's Birth- ers. Neither Jerome Kern and Oscar
day cartoon in the Polish-American press Hammerstein's "Abe Lincoln Had Just One
(see Figure 2), titled "My Defenders" (Moi Country" nor Irving Berlin's "Abraham"
Obroncy) portrays Liberty (Wolnocz) show- had much impact on the public mood. Aaron
ing pictures of Abraham Lincoln and Thad- Copland's "Lincoln Portrait," on the other
deus Kosciusko (the Polish patriot who hand, was one of the most popular wartime
fought for the United States in the Revolu- musical productions. Inspired by "Requiem
tionary War) to a young U.S. soldier (Zol- Suggested by the GettysburgAddress," writ-
nierz U.S.) in battle dress. One year later a ten by his teacher Rubin Goldmark during
similar portrait appeared, with a young child
(symbolizing the community's next genera-
Figure 2.
tion) taking the soldier's place. Clearly, Lin-
coln was to America what Kosciusko was to My Defenders: A Cartoon Appearing in a Polish-
American Newspaper, Frames World War II by
Poland. Drawn in two successive years, the Connecting Traditional Symbols and Representa-
illustratedconnection made Lincoln a media- tive Heroes of America and Poland
tor joining the Polish community to the MoiObrof.iy
American state and its war.
Inspiration
Invocations of the past are ideologial asser-
tions whose function, as Geertz (1973) put
it, is to formulate the mood of a people, then
to "mobilize it by making it a public posses-
sion rather than a set of disconnected, unre-
alized private emotions" (p. 232). Lincoln
formulated this mood and mobilized these
emotions. This is why his image appearedso
often during the bleak days of the war. Un- Q Fe
like clarification discourse, which used im-
ages of Lincoln to explain the war's purpose,
inspiration discourse drew on Lincoln im-
ages to justify the war's costs. Inspiration
discourse was a discourse of encouragement,
Source: Personal Scrapbook, My Defenders, c.1943.
and to propagate it effectively the pattern Newspaper cartoon. The Abraham Lincoln Museum,
maintenance machinery-comprised of Harrogate,Tennessee. Photocourtesy of the AbrahamLin-
agencies whose function is to articulate cul- coln Museum.

World War I, Copland's 13-minute orches- were in English, but many were in other lan-
tral piece includes a speaker reciting various guages. In Philadelphia, the Sons of Union
passages from Lincoln's speeches. From Veterans placed a wreath on the spot where
Cincinnati, where it was first performed, a President-elect Lincoln, under threat of as-
journalist reported, "I have not seen so ex- sassination, delivered his 1861 Washington's
cited an audience as this Cinncinati one Birthday speech. The Daughters of Union
upon the completion of Copland's Lin- Veterans, joined by Boy Scouts, held their
coln . . . "(Copland and Perlis 1984:342). ceremony at the giant Lincoln statue in
From several other cities came reports that FairmountPark.At the Union League, young
"audiences get all excited by it"(p. 344). women were formally inducted into the
"Lincoln Portrait" aroused audiences be- Women's Army Corps (WACS) in front of
cause it placed the early 1942 battle losses Lincoln's statue.
in a perspective that made them seem man- Rituals, Shils (1975) observed, are "partof
ageable and comprehensible. [society's] systematic response to crisis" (p.
In July 1942, amid still discouraging news 158). As Lincoln Day rituals keyed the pre-
from the war front, conductorAndre Kostela- sent crisis to crises of the past, they per-
netz performed "Lincoln Portrait"(with Carl formed two functions: They visualized and
Sandburgas reader) before a crowd gathered enhanced the public solidarity needed to
near the Lincoln Memorial. "After the con- wage war effectively, and they defined the
cert," Copland recalled, "Andretold me that war's purpose by invoking, through refer-
he felt Lincoln's words 'with a terrible new ences to Lincoln, the values of the nation.
clarity,' and we both knew the audience felt That these rituals conducted at the nadir of
it also" (Copland and Perlis 1984:344). Co- American military fortunes were so moving
pland's comment on Lincoln's words having to so many people was not accidental, for
the same effect on Kostelanetz as on the one of the importantfunctions of shared val-
people who heard them reflects the familiar- ues is to unify and inspire in the face of fail-
ity of the symbols his music communicated. ure. The Office of War Information knew
Copland composed his piece to invoke these this. In one of its early posters (National Ar-
symbols, not to exploit them. An exploited chives, Box 1, PM 1-20-118), contemporary
audience must, by definition, hold values that soldiers in battle dress and armed with mod-
differ from those which its manipulator ern weapons parade at Valley Forge (the low
wishes to impose. Copland's task (like point of the Revolution) before the ranks of
Roosevelt's and the Office of War George Washington's bedraggled soldiers.
Information's) was to invigorate, not to The scene gave meaning to early World War
change, conceptions the public already II losses by defining them as early and mo-
held-to reaffirmbeliefs and feelings that he mentaryepisodes in a long, transcendentnar-
and his audience shared. rative. The slogan accompanying this scene,
However, people do not always know what "AmericansWill Always Defend Liberty,"re-
ideas they share with others, or even whether iterates the point, emphasizing the continu-
they share any ideas at all. Commemorative ity of present and past.
ritual, like commemorative music, makes Lincoln's response to defeat on the battle-
consensus explicit. In New York, in 1942, field was an importantpart of this narrative.
amid news of astonishing German and Japa- In the winter of 1942, the Philadelphia In-
nese victories, veterans' groups and Boy quirer shows him placing an encouraging
Scouts conducted their annual Lincoln Day hand on the shoulder of a despondent Uncle
ceremonies at the Lincoln statue in Union Sam, who cringes at the latest war news
Square. Fred Lee, a Chinese-American (February 12, 1942, p. 9). In the summer of
youngster, climbed to the top of the pedestal 1942, as German and Japanese forces con-
and placed upon it a floral wreath forming tinued to advance, The New York Times
"V" for victory (New YorkTimes, February Magazine (June 28, 1942, Section 7, p. 5)
13, 1942, p. 14). Throughout the city differ- published "He, Too, Had Dark Days," a story
ent organizations, from the Grand Army of by one of Lincoln's secretaries, William
the Republic to the American Civil Liberties Stoddard,as retold by his son. The story fol-
Union, held Lincoln Day programs-most lows Lincoln after the disastrous defeat of

his army at Chancellorsville and shows how Figure 3.

he looked beyond it: On the very night of the That These Dead Shall Not Have Died in Vain:
calamity he wrote out military orders that set Distributed as Posters and Reprinted in Newspa-
the stage for victory at Gettysburg. The re- pers and Magazines, invokes Lincoln to Legiti-
printing of Stoddard's article expresses a mate the Suffering of War and to Promote the
powerful theme in the culture of war.Armies Sharing of Its Burden
that win battles effortlessly require no mem-
ories to sustain their morale while spectacu-
lar victories of the past are useless models in
a hard-fought war marked by costly and dis- ~~~*a1
couraging defeats.
Talcott Parsons (1951), a consistent and
ardent war hawk, probably never read Stod-
dard's article. But the imperative to which
the article refers-continued effort in the
face of defeat and loss-was central to
Parsons's postwar formulation of society in
The Social System: consensus in a social sys-
tem is problematic and requires the func-
tional capacity to "motivate actors ad-
equately to performances which may be nec-
essary if the social system in question is to
persist" (p. 29). In the early 1940s, a good
way to inspire "adequatemotivation" for the
struggles of World War II was to connect it
to the legacy of the early 1860s.
Consolation
Source: U.S. Treasury Department,That These Dead
People who live through a war costing ShallNot Have Died in Vain, 1943. Poster. The Abraham
300,000 lives and 1 million injuries need Lincoln Museum,HarrogateTennessee. Photo courtesy of
more than inspiration. They need a theodicy. the AbrahamLincoln Museum.
The discourses of theodicy and inspiration
are comparable: Both enable people to work
together continuously and effectively despite pears in the picture's foreground and, in the
great losses. Consolation discourse is formu- background,elevated above the fallen soldier
lated to make the ultimate loss, death, under- is Daniel Chester French's statue of Lincoln.
standable and bearable. Two sacred docu- Both Lincoln and the soldier whom Lincoln
ments of the Civil Warperformedthese func- beholds are illuminated by the same mysteri-
tions. Lincoln wrote the first document, the ous light. An extract from the Gettysburg
GettysburgAddress (part of the "New Testa- Address completes the image: "ThatWe Here
ment"of "civil scripture"[Bellah, 1970:177- Highly Resolve That These Dead Shall Not
78]), for the dedication of a new military Have Died in Vain."In a related poster titled
cemetery, but its substance was generalizable. "RememberDec. 7th!" (the date of the attack
"In this tremendous war, whose every day on Pearl Harbor),the same line appearsabove
adds to the numberof our dead, Mr.Lincoln's a battle-tornflag flying at halfmast to conse-
words of eighty years ago are as strong, in- crate the dead (National Archives, Box 4, PM
spiring and immediate as if they were heard 180-44-PA-i178).
today for the first time" (New YorkTimes, The second document of Lincoln's secular
April 14, 1943, p. 10). War bond advertise- theodicy was his letter to Mrs. Lydia Bixby,
ments made this point tangible. The back of a Massachusetts mother believed to have lost
the Philadelphia Inquirer's Sunday supple- five sons during the Civil War.The letter was
ment, to take one example, shows a soldier in first cited in 1942, when Mr. and Mrs. Tho-
full battle gear lying dead (Figure 3). He ap- mas Sullivan of Waterloo, Iowa lost their

five sons in the Pacific campaign. There was nomination for a second term in the U.S.
a remarkable similarity between the combat House of Representatives (Mitgang 1967).
deaths of five Massachusetts brothers in War resisters inscribed Lincoln's words on
1862 and of five Iowa brothers in 1942. their posters: "It is a sin to be silent when it
Newspapers formatted the story as a triad in is your duty to protest"(U.S. Libraryof Con-
which Lincoln's picture, a photographof the gress, Yankel Collection, 6-U.S., 1119). War
Sullivan boys, and the Bixby letter, some- supporters, on the other hand, saw nothing
times printed in Lincoln's handwriting, ap- in common between Lincoln and the current
peared together. Vietnam critics. Once men were in the field,
A free replica of the Bixby letter was of- they said, Lincoln voted for whatever was
fered to all bereaved parents by the Weath- necessary to defeat Mexico (Collier 1966:
erhead Company of Cleveland, Ohio. The 1982). Hawks also noted that Lincoln, like
letter omits Lincoln's first sentence, which LyndonJohnson and RichardNixon, endured
refers specifically to the Bixby boys, and be- frequent criticism over war policies. As the
gins at the second sentence where it refers to Vietnam War wound down, liberals contin-
any boy. The WeatherheadCompanyprofited ued to use Lincoln to articulate their views.
by war contracts, but its gift was nonetheless They found in his call for "malice toward
a gift of meaning because it matched a fa- none" and "charity for all" a guiding vision
miliar and powerful sign-an image of Lin- for postwar reconciliation. Because President
coln-with the catastrophiceffects of World Lincoln forgave the "sincerely penitent" de-
War II in such a way as to make the latter serters and draft evaders, President Nixon
morally comprehensible. To place a soldier's should be equally generous (New YorkTimes,
name on some casualty list is to make his February 12, 1973, p. 26). Instead, Nixon's
death a mere point of information. To con- second inauguration committee dropped a
nect that name with Lincoln's is to sanctify specially prepared concert based on Lin-
it. Lincoln's Bixby letter communicated an coln's second inaugural address. The Com-
identity of purpose between nation and fam- mittee offered no reason for its decision but
ily better than could any other document. was reported to have found Lincoln's com-
ments on Union military success and his call
for clemency to be "not in spirit" with Presi-
THE ETERNAL PAST
dent Nixon's situation and aims (New York
Lincoln's presidency, with its setbacks and Times,January 14, 1973, p. 1).
prolonged struggle, was the perfect symbolic Why were some events and not others
code for World War II. The appropriateness keyed to Lincoln's presidency? Memorable
of the "code/event match" (Smith 1991; and heroic moments, according to Wagner-
Wagner-Pacifici forthcoming), however, was Pacifici (1996), are always "fraught with
provisional. Abraham Lincoln's image conflict and contradiction [and always] leave
waxed and waned as the political consensus casualties and sacrifices in their paths" (p.
on World War II broke down. Since the Ko- 306). If we add the phrase "consequential
rean conflict was a new kind of military ex- conflict and contradiction" to Wagner-
perience, one with understandable but not Pacifici's statement, we understand why
compelling purpose, it was rarely keyed to Lincoln's power as a consensual symbol, la-
the Civil War or to any other part of the tent during the painful but nonthreatening
American past. Lacking a symbolic frame, Korean and Vietnam wars, became manifest
this "police action," as it was officially during the four days following President
called, became "The Forgotten War"as soon John F. Kennedy's assassination.
as it ended. Presidential assassinations, like world
Lincoln's memory was invoked once again wars, threaten the institutional foundations
during the Vietnam War, but it was used to of national existence (Shils 1965). Since
articulate division rather than unity. To jus- these threats prove more intelligible when
tify their cause, antiwar constituencies re- assimilated to familiar narratives,clergymen
called Lincoln's opposition to the Mexican hastened to compare Kennedy's death with
War.They asserted that he had remainedfirm Lincoln's. Cardinal Cushing, concluding his
in his conviction, even though it cost him the nationally televised message from Boston,

could think of no comfort to extend to the Between December 1941 and September
president's mother and father "beyond the 1945, Abraham Lincoln framed and articu-
knowledge that they have given history a lated a nation's experience of war. His mem-
youthful Lincoln"(New York Times, Novem- ory did not glorify the war or conceal its hor-
ber 25, 1963, p. 1). On the same day, televi- ror, as have other commemorations (Mosse
sion cameras showed a succession of digni- 1990); it formulated the war's meaning. His
taries converging on the White House as ac- memory helped to legitimate the president's
tor Van Heflin, off-camera, read the poem assumption of dictatorialpowers, preparethe
Walt Whitman composed on the occasion of population for war, clarify the ideals and val-
Lincoln's death, 0 Captain! My Captain!: ues at stake in the war, inspire men and
"Oh the bleeding drops of red,/ Where on the women to carry it out in the face of many
deck my Captainlies,/ Fallen cold and dead." defeats, and justify more than 1 million
Next day, the president's coffin was car- American deaths and injuries. The American
ried by horse-drawn caisson to the Capitol people, however, legitimated and oriented
and placed on the same catafalque that had their actions, affirmed their values, and in-
borne AbrahamLincoln's remains. Common spired and consoled one another in many
ritual paraphernaliarevealed continuity and ways. Representations of Lincoln were only
common fate: two presidents, two martyrs. one part of the cultural template that made
Ritual symbols constituted the link, trans- the war comprehensible. Knowledge of Lin-
formed external parallels involving bullets, coln's symbolic role, however, provides an-
fleeing assailants, and hurried oath-takings swers to the questions posed at the beginning
into mystical bonds that unite generations. of this paper:What do we mean behaviorally
Millions of television viewers saw Ken- when we refer to memory work as a model
nedy's funeral pageant approachthe Lincoln for society? Under what conditions and for
Memorial, wind around its southern side, what purpose is the past invoked as a frame
move across Memorial Bridge into the cem- for understandingthe present? What agents
etery, and arriveat the graveside. They would conduct memory work, and what is their re-
never forget what they had seen. Halbwachs lation to society at large? What must memory
([1950] 1980:128-57) often noticed how work accomplish if it is to be considered ef-
events occurring over time are fixed in col- fective?
lective memory by the arrangement of ob- My first step in answering these questions
jects in space. So it was on the day of Ken- has been to consider memory work's social
nedy's funeral. Television cameras scanning function. Memory work has at best a mini-
downhill, past the gravesite and across the mal instrumentalfunction. It does not create
Potomac River, revealed the direct line from and mobilize resources or make armies more
Kennedy's grave across the Memorial Bridge effective. Its function is semiotic: to make
to the Lincoln Memorial. tangible the values for which resources and
armies are mobilized in the first place. Key-
ing, the mechanism of memory work, real-
CONCLUSION izes this function by a literal crossing of ide-
In his conclusion to Watergate in American ational wires-a forced juxtaposition of ac-
Memory, Schudson (1994) observed: "People tors and events in two separate wars, such
are not invariably seeking to legitimate their that the narrativesof one war are appropri-
present interests [by invoking the past].... ated as means to interpret the events of the
They seek to know what is right, what is true. other.
They seek some kind of direction when they The World WarII generation exploited the
are aimless. They seek in the past some kind memory of Abraham Lincoln through a six-
of anchor when they are adrift. They seek a part keying process: (1) selection: a specific
source of inspiration when they despair" (p. historical event, the Civil War, was invoked
213). Memory, in other words, is a cultural as a primary framework; (2) scanning: Civil
program that orients our intentions, sets our War episodes were perused with a view to
moods, and enables us to act. Studying locating actions relevant to WorldWarII pre-
memory during a national emergency has dicaments; (3) event alignment: emphasis on
given us a grasp of how this programworks. relevant similarities rather than contrasts

helped render World War II a "repetition"of the greatest American president besides
the Civil War-"the same thing all over Roosevelt.
again"; (4) identification: World War II par- Although Americans earnestly keyed prob-
ticipants expressly "identified"with the Civil lematic states of World War II to Lincoln's
War generation, looked upon its members as experience in the Civil War, the fit was not
predecessors and themselves as descendants; perfect-and this was necessarily so, for the
(5) values alignment: World War II partici- past is both an idealization and a critique of
pants saw themselves and their Civil Waran- the present world. Invoking Lincoln and the
cestors struggling toward the same moral Civil War would have been pointless if they
ends; (6) idealization: complex Civil Warim- resembled Roosevelt and World War II too
ages were summarized in the familiar image closely, for a past that merely reproduces the
of Abraham Lincoln, and because they were present suggests no answers to its dilemmas.
summarized in him, they enlarged him and Ideal models, not realistic ones, inspire and
elevated him and made him bigger than life.3 energize. On the other hand, ideals may be-
Americans at war could choose any one of come so abstractas to bear no relationship to
a number of events from history to invoke. life's realities. Simplistically idealized vi-
They chose the Civil Warmost often because sions of the past are not credible enough to
it was the defining moment of the American serve as a model for a present that is com-
nation-the moment that shaped and fixed plex and imperfect. Tension, not easy com-
the identity of generations. In the mid-twen- patibility, defines the relation between mem-
tieth century, makers of images of the Civil ory and experience.
Warand of Lincoln could thus count on their In the present case, tension is sustained in
audiences' capacity to understandand appre- two ways. Since Lincoln's life is made up of
ciate their work. The machinery of invoca- more facets than can be applied in a given
tion (keying) presupposes ratherthan creates situation, its emulation requires selective re-
the affinity of the events it brings together, membrance. During the Great Depression,
and only when this affinity is commonly felt for example, Lincoln's youth and struggles
can the invocation of a nineteenth-century in Illinois were the main objects of popular
president highlight and reinforce twentieth reflection; during the war, his presidency;
century values. during Kennedy's funeral, his death. This
That the World War II generation found it does not mean that we ourselves create the
so easy to embrace Lincoln is the very con- object that instructs and inspires us. The
dition that defines the power of his image. If question, "What part of Lincoln's life is a
Lincoln's image were hollow, a merely sym- model for society?" is simply answered dif-
bolic residue left over from former genera- ferently, evokes different sentiments, and ap-
tions, then the popularity of Lincoln biogra- pears with different relevance from one so-
phies, songs, dramas, films, and the great cial context to another.
volume of newspaper and magazine articles Tension between memory and experience
about Lincoln that appearedimmediately be- is also sustained by the dynamics of distor-
fore and during the war would have no ex- tion. If memory work does not create the
planation, and if his image had lost its power past, it does exaggerate it. This is because in-
to orient and motivate, then at the end of the vocation is rhetorically stylized. Invoking
war Americans would not have ratedLincoln Lincoln through the discourses of legitima-
tion, orientation, clarification, inspiration,
3 This six-phase keying process is often related and consolation makes him more dictatorial,
to frames for collective action. Action frames, as decisive, relentless, clear-minded, demo-
Gamson (1992, 1995) defines them, are beliefs cratic, and sympathetic than he could have
that promote reform and stimulate participationin been in his time. This exaggeration, induced
social movements. They define present injustices by twentieth-century problems, idealized
and induce victims or indignant observers to see Lincoln and made him more credible as a
themselves as remedial agents and to construe
their conduct as self-defining. Analysis of the model for a twentieth-century society.
But
keying of problematic present events to past the exaggeration of Lincoln's virtues does
events shows contemporary action frames to be not explain why he had become a model in
deeply embedded in collective memory. the first place. Lincoln, in fact, was not a

model because he was idealized; rather he memory invoked more often than anyone
was idealized because he was already a else's? What is problematic is not only the
model. And he was already a model because function of memory-for example, to console
of real, not imaginary (constructed), accom- by making death meaningful-but also the
plishments and traits. vehicle of memory-to make death meaning-
Models can be used in different ways. To ful by invoking Lincoln. Second, conflict
understand the keying of any World War II theory assumes dissensus to be the natural
situation to the Civil War,therefore, the role state of society, dismissing the possibility that
of "fabrication"-the intentional effort of image-makers might embrace the same val-
one or more individuals to manipulate or ues and goals as their audience and invoke
even falsify meaning-must be discounted shared symbols to articulate, rather than to
(see Goffman 1974:83-123). What motives, manipulate, its sentiment. This second point
then, should we attributeto President Roos- is the most fundamental.To focus exclusively
evelt and his administratorsfor so often re- on the use of Lincoln's image by a dominant
sorting to Lincoln? What should we make of class or dominantinstitution is to offer a sup-
the work of cartoonists, editors, corporation ply-side theory that attends to the production
heads, advertising departments, publicists, of images but ignores how the images are re-
and the Office of War Information? Should ceived. Reception, however, is always prob-
we treat their appeals as keyings or fabrica- lematic. The state's success or failure in gen-
tions? Was Lincoln's image invoked by the erating support for war by sustaining dis-
state and the media as Christ's image was in- course on Lincoln is determined by the
voked by the church? Or was his image used public's endorsement of the values Lincoln
to manipulate the masses into supporting a symbolized, its belief that those values are
cause toward which they might have other- worth struggling to preserve, and its percep-
wise been indifferent? tion that the state is theircustodian ratherthan
Influential people do not always con- their exploiter. Between the remembranceof
sciously manipulate; they often believe their Lincoln and the immediate imperatives of
efforts to affect others' opinions are in the war exists a relation that neither the concepts
general interest. The fabrication concept is of manipulation and propaganda, nor the re-
useful, however, because it helps distinguish lated concepts of dominantideology and false
influencing agents who share their aud- consciousness, can formulate.
ience's values from agents who induce their Theories focusing solely on divergent
audience to adopt values to which it is not memories rooted in competing interests can-
committed or of which the agents alone ap- not credibly depict American memory during
prove. Conflict theories of memory are refer- the war years. Throughoutthe war, it is true,
ring to this kind of fabrication when they as- Republicans regarded Lincoln as the antith-
sert that any image of the past is "a product esis of centralized New Deal power politics
of elite manipulation" (Bodnar 1992:20). while Democrats saw him as the epitome of
Since the dominant class's images celebrate welfare-state compassion. The politics of
the dominant ideology, Baigell (1993:201, memory, however, can produce consensus as
204) observes, they "can be seen as a form well as conflict, and by 1945 consensus
of oppression" or, at best, baneful influence. dominated. Memories of Abraham Lincoln
The photograph of the raising of the Ameri- embodied a universal cultural presence that
can flag at Iwo Jima provides a clear ex- constituted common models for acting, com-
ample: It was deliberately posed and, accord- mon ideals for judging, common categories
ing to Kenneth Ames (1993:223), "used to of understanding,common sources of inspi-
manipulate the American public to support ration, and common interpretationsof suffer-
the war." ing and death.
Whetherelites are sincere or deceptive, as- As a model for society, however, Abraham
sertions about their hegemony leave two es- Lincoln was more than an image of the mo-
sential and interrelated questions unanswer- ment. He was part of something deeper and
ed. First, of the infinite number of devices more permanent-part of a collective con-
that could have been used to inspire and consciousness. Just as different sentences enact
sole the American masses, why was Lincoln's the unseen reality of a language (Saussure

[1915] 1956), so different depictions of Lin- president, John Kennedy? Or would that
coln enacted a common image of a man. This event remain unframed by the past? Cata-
deep, common image gave different transfor- strophic events like the Kennedy assassina-
mations of Lincoln their recognizable unity. tion or even World War II may recur, yet
Thus, the cultural power of Lincoln's mem- many believe that we live in a "post-national"
ory, as Emile Durkheim ([1893] 1964) would age wherein national memories are losing the
say, is "independentof the particularcondi- capacity to mobilize and heal (Gillis
tions in which individuals are placed; they 1994:20). Postmodernistshave gone even fur-
pass on and it remains. . . . [I]t does not ther, declaring that all grand narratives and
change with each but, on the contrary,it con- their heroes, whether political or religious,
nects successive generations with one an- have lost credibility (Lyotard [1979]
other" (p. 80). 1984:14,37). Gillis and the postmodernists
Durkheim ([1915] 1965:475) also believ- are raising the fundamental question of
ed, however, that generations change as they whether collective memory can retain its tra-
move alternately from eras of "collective ef- ditional capacity to organize experience and
fervescence," in which the nation's myths and endow it with human values. The World War
symbols are reaffirmed, to eras of "moral II generation was notable in this regard, not
mediocrity" in which the transcendence of because it deemed Lincoln a hero, but be-
the nation and its ideals recedes. In the moral cause it considered heroism itself a valid
mediocrity of America's postwar era, Lin- moral category.That category is less credible
coln's standing in polls of presidential great- now than ever before; but if it has receded as
ness fell sharply.4His status fell furtherafter much as postmodernists suggest, America's
the 1968 Monday Holiday Bill subordinated ongoing "culture wars" (Hunter 1991:108-
the anniversary of his birth, observed offi- 15) would not be so hotly contested.5
cially in many states on February 12, to an The present culture wars include debates
anonymous and undated Presidents Day. By over commemoration as well as the content
the 1976 Bicentennial, journalist Sean of history curricula.Progressives believe that
O'Gara bitterly recalled: "In 1941, when our the uncritical commemoration of traditional
nation was endangered,we reacheddown into heroes promotes uncritical acceptance of the
our well of national heroes and resurrected status quo. Yet collective memory, as a mo-
them selfishly and possessively, because we del for society, has inspired resistance and
needed them, and we used them shamelessly reform as well as consensus and conformity.
to buoy our hopes in that time of travail;now, Through decades of struggle for racial jus-
with danger apparently passed, we are dis- tice in America, for example, African Ameri-
carding them by relegating them to second- can leaders have held up Lincoln as a model
ary memory" (Congressional Record, House of justice for Black society and White soci-
of Representatives, March 30, 1976:87 15). ety alike. For America's immigrant as well
Might these old memories-or, more pre- as African American communities, Abraham
cisely, this culture of memory-someday re- Lincoln's public life has been a model for
appear? If a war erupted or a president were universal rights and civic compassion rather
assassinated, would Lincoln be invoked again than White Anglo-Saxon Protestant domi-
to frame the national mood and purpose? nance (see, for example, Schwartz 1995:48-
Would that event be framed by memories of 50; 1996b). Nevertheless, Americans now
the more recent war president, Franklin look less often to the past as a model for the
Roosevelt, or the more recently assassinated present than ever before. They realize more
clearly than before that their nation's history
4In 1956, 62 percent of a nationwide Gallup can be seen as a source of shame ratherthan
sample included Lincoln among America's three
greatest presidents. By 1991, a comparable Gal-
lup survey showed the percentage naming Lin- I For recent comparative perspectives on the
coln in response to the same question had de- Civil War and World War II, see War Comes
clined to 45. Most of the decline was registered Again (Boritt 1995), a book of scholarly essays
in the 1975 poll, which showed John Kennedy at marking the 50th anniversary of World War II.
the peak of his posthumous prestige (see Fort Sumpter is compared with Pearl Harbor,
Schwartz 1996a). Eisenhower with Grant, Roosevelt with Lincoln.

direction and inspiration. Cruelty toward In- Harperand Row.

dian populations, slavery, racial segregation, .1975. The Broken Covenant. Chicago, IL:
and the demeaning of women and immigrant University of Chicago Press.
minorities are deemed by many Americans to Bellah, Robert N., Richard Madsen, William M.
Sullivan, Ann Swidler, and Steven M. Tipton.
be integral facets of their nation's history. To 1985. Habits of the Heart. New York: Harper
evaluate these perceptions is difficult. Rob- and Row.
ert Bellah believes that negative memories Bodnar, John. 1992. Remaking America: Public
are necessary because "they call the commu- Memory, Commemoration, and Patriotism in
nity to alter ancient evils" (1985:153). But the Twentieth Century. Princeton, NJ: Prince-
what of the memories in which collective es- ton University Press.
teem is rooted? Is the nation not weakened Boritt, Gabor, ed. 1995. War Comes Again: Com-
when its grand narratives are discredited, parative Vistas on the Civil War and World
when its citizens conceive the past as some- War II. New York: Oxford University Press.
Boyarin, Jonathan, ed. 1994. Remapping Mem-
thing to be repented rather than embraced?
ory: The Politics of Time Space. Minneapolis,
These important matters remain open. MN: University of Minnesota Press.
Whether the American people will remain Connelly, Thomas L. 1977. The Marble Man.
conscious of themselves as a nation and what Robert E. Lee and His Image in American So-
memories might symbolize that conscious- ciety. New York: Knopf.
ness are questions only history will answer. Collier, Hon. Harold R. 1966. "Lincoln and the
War with Mexico." Congressional Record,
Barry Schwartz is Professor of Sociology at the 89th Cong., 2d sess., Vol. 112, pt. 2:1982-83.
University of Georgia. His most recent work in- Cooley, Charles Horton. [1902] 1964. Human
Nature and the Social Order. New York:
cludes "Rereading the Gettysburg Address: So-
Schocken.
cial Change and Collective Memory," part of a
Copland, Aaron and Vivian Perlis. 1984. Cop-
special issue on collective memory in Qualitative
land: 1900 through 1942. New York: St.
Sociology (vol. 19, fall 1996)for which he served
Martin's Press.
as guest editor. His other recent work includes
Ducharme, Lori J. and Gary A. Fine. 1995. "The
"Collective Memory and Commemoration: How
Construction of Demonization and Nonperson-
Abraham Lincoln Became a Symbol of Racial
hood: Constructing the 'Traitorous' Reputation
Equality" (Sociological Quarterlyforthcoming)
of Benedict Arnold." Social Forces 73:1309-
and "France Images: Towards a Semiotics of
31.
Collective Memory" (Semiotica forthcomingg.His
Durkheim, Emile. [1893] 1964. The Division of
main research project concerns AbrahamLincoln
Labor in Society. New York: Free Press.
and representations of the American past. . [1915] 1965. The Elementary Forms of
the Religious Life. New York: The Free Press.
Fine, Gary Alan. 1996. "Reputational Entrepre-
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Memory as a Cultural System: Abraham Lincoln in World War II

Author(s): Barry Schwartz

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he 50th anniversaryof WorldWarII has In this paper I refer to World War II as a

908 American Sociological Review, 1996, Vol. 61 (October:908-927)

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94-120)-define culture as an organization (1992) on "official" and "vernacular"mem-

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maintenance discourse that dramatizes the Figure 1.

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his army at Chancellorsville and shows how Figure 3.

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direction and inspiration. Cruelty toward In- Harperand Row.

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Pp. 87-125 in The Interpretation of Cultures. North Carolina Press.

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tory and Memory 1:35-59. came a Symbol of Racial Equality." Sociologi-

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