A Selection of Photographs and Essays from the 2017 WVU Press Book
From Wounded Knee to the Edmund Pettus Bridge, and from the Upper Big Branch mine disaster to the Trail of Tears, Marked, Unmarked, Remembered (West Virginia University Press, 2017) presents photographs of significant sites from US history, posing unsettling questions about the contested memory of traumatic episodes from the nation's past. Focusing especially on landscapes related to African American, Native American, and labor history, Marked, Unmarked, Remembered reveals new vistas of officially commemorated sites, sites that are neglected or obscured, and sites that serve as a gathering place for active rituals of organized memory.
These powerful photographs by award-winning photojournalist Andrew Lichtenstein are interspersed with short essays by some of the leading historians of the United States. The book is introduced with substantive meditations on meaning and landscape by Alex Lichtenstein, editor of the American Historical Review, and Edward T. Linenthal, former editor of the Journal of American History. Individually, these images convey American history in new and sometimes startling ways. Taken as a whole, the volume amounts to a starkly visual reckoning with the challenges of commemorating a violent and conflictual history of subjugation and resistance that we forget at our peril.
The exhibit was coordinated by Art in the Libraries program in support of WVU Press and consists of 17 photos and essays. It will be on view on the 2nd floor of Downtown Campus Library thru December 2017. To order this book or any WVU Press book, visit wvupress.com, phone (800) 621-2736, or visit a local bookstore. To learn more about WVU Press, visit wvupress.com. For updates on books and events, follow WVU Press on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, or join our mailing list on wvupress.com.