Shadowed Ground: America’s Landscapes of Violence and Tragedy

by Kenneth E. Foote

Winner, John Brinckerhoff Jackson Prize, Association of American Geographers, 1997

Shadowed Ground explores how and why Americans have memorialized—or not—the sites of tragic and violent events spanning three centuries of history and every region of the country. For this revised edition, Kenneth Foote has written a new concluding chapter that looks at the evolving responses to recent acts of violence and terror, including the destruction of the Branch Davidian compound at Waco, Texas, the Oklahoma City bombing, the Columbine High School massacre, and the terrorist attacks of 9/11.

Genres: History, Academic, Nonfiction, Architecture, Sociology, Cultural, Anthropology

408 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1997

Reviews

[Yunis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kenneth E. Foote wrote a book that goes through America’s memory lane of violence and tragedy, and how we remember them. Foote visited the places have been both sometimes forgotten and other times memorialized. I felt that the book took the author more time than a duration of a doctoral thesis. I believe that this book was the author’s obsession of his tenure. I love this work and I wish to see a follow up by Doctor Foote.

[Lisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

A seemingly great premise about shadowed ground, but Foote doesn’t really get to it in Chapter 9 (or so he says because he never really does get to shadowed ground). Odd assortment of examples.

[Jenny.p · Rating 4 out of 5]

The more time I spent with this book, the more valuable I realize that it is. Foote explores the relationship between history and place and looks at why and how certain communities honor (or choose not to mark) specific violent and tragic events that took place there. It all comes down to the crafting of a collective identity in a community and how events that are sometimes shameful or just painful influence that collective memory.

I recently taught this book as well; at first I selected it because I knew that I had to as it is basic scholarship on the topic, but found that I referenced it almost every class session throughout the semester and walked away from the course really believing that Foote is the total authority on the subject.

[Tracy · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an interesting book. It looks at how historical events are commemorated and some are too tragic to remember. It made me realize that most historical landmarks mark some kind of violent event. Loved it!

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

A delightful read (if you can call recounting America's "traumascapes" "delightful"). Rich in history, Foote identifies numerous sites of violence and explores the ways in which these sites are memorialzied (or not) through processes of sanctification, rectification, obliteration, and designation.

[Brownshoebrian · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit redundant but its a good book for understanding how geography can be a useful tool to look at history.