| "A
few decades after the Revolutionary War, Valley Forge was a largely
ignored battlefield that was rapidly reverting to farmland; this year
as many as four million tourists will visit the site. Thus, it is
both instructive and interesting to follow the evolution of this national
shrine. Treese, an archivist at Bryn Mawr College, has a knack for
breathing life into seemingly dry and fragmented documentary evidence.
She skillfully examines lore about Valley Forge, including Washington's
supposed pleas for divine guidance and the striking image of snow
stained with the blood of shoeless, starving soldiers. She also reveals
the often passionate conflicts and rivalries over development and
concession rights. Finally, she paints a revealing portrait of the
manner in which Americans, past and present, have chosen to view their
history. In an age when the bloodstained, hallowed ground of Virginia
battlefields is coveted as a site for a Disney theme park, Treese's
work is a timely reminder that some treasures can't be calculated
in dollars and cents."—Booklist
More than four million people a year visit Valley Forge, one of
America's most celebrated historic sites. Here, amid the rolling
hills of southeastern Pennsylvania, visitors can pass through the
house which served as Washington's Headquarters during the famous
winter encampment of 1777-1778. Others picnic and jog in the huge
park, complete with monuments, recreated log huts, and modern visitor
center, all built to pay tribute to the Valley Forge story. In this
lively book, Lorett Treese shows how Valley Forge evolved into the
tourist mecca that it is today. In the process, she uses Valley
Forge as a means for understanding how Americans view their own
past.
Treese explores the origins of popular images associated with Valley
Forge, such as George Washington kneeling in the snow to seek divine
assistance. She places Valley Forge in the context of the historic
preservation movement as the site became Pennsylvania's first state
park in 1893. She studies its "Era of Monuments" and the movement
to "restore" Valley Forge in the spirit of Rockefeller's enormously
popular colonial Williamsburg.
Treese describes a Valley Forge fraught with controversy over the
appropriate appearance and use of a place so revered. One such controversy,
the "hot dog war," a brief but intense battle over concession stands,
was spawned by Americans' changing perceptions of how a national
park was to be used. The volatile Vietnam era prompted the state
park commission to establish its "Subcommittee on Sex, Hippies,
and Whiskey Swillers" to investigate park regulation infractions.
Even today, people differ over exactly what happened at Valley
Forge during the winter of 1777-1778. The modern visitor sees the
remains of over a century of commemoration, competition, and contention.
The result, Treese shows, is a historic site that may reveal more
about succeeding history than about Washington's army. This book
will give its readers a new way to look at Valley Forge—and all
historic sites. |
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