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Lost on the Freedom Trail: The National Park Service and Urban Renewal in Postwar Boston
Boston National Historical Park is one of America's most popular heritage destinations, drawing in millions of visitors annually. Tourists flock there to see the site of the Boston Massacre, to relive Paul Revere's midnight ride, and to board Old Ironsides—all of these bound together by the iconic Freedom Trail, which traces the city's revolutionary saga.
Making sense of the Revolution, however, was never the primary aim for the planners who reimagined Boston's heritage landscape after the Second World War. Seth C. Bruggeman demonstrates that the Freedom Trail was always largely a tourist gimmick, devised to lure affluent white Americans into downtown revival schemes, its success hinging on a narrow vision of the city's history run through with old stories about heroic white men. When Congress pressured the National Park Service to create this historical park for the nation's bicentennial celebration in 1976, these ideas seeped into its organizational logic, precluding the possibility that history might prevail over gentrification and profit.
Making sense of the Revolution, however, was never the primary aim for the planners who reimagined Boston's heritage landscape after the Second World War. Seth C. Bruggeman demonstrates that the Freedom Trail was always largely a tourist gimmick, devised to lure affluent white Americans into downtown revival schemes, its success hinging on a narrow vision of the city's history run through with old stories about heroic white men. When Congress pressured the National Park Service to create this historical park for the nation's bicentennial celebration in 1976, these ideas seeped into its organizational logic, precluding the possibility that history might prevail over gentrification and profit.
322 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 25, 2022
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January 12, 2023
Bruggeman does not stop at the question, how does the Freedom Trail shape collective memory for visitors from across the country and around the world? he engages a more local history, one with arguably more national significance than the Freedom Trail itself: how did the process of using local sites to interpret the American Revolution compound the oppression of some of the people who benefited the least from American independence, such as Black Bostonians? while early Americanists have asked and answered, “revolution for whom?” and public historians have asked how historical sites facilitate meaning-making, the central question of LOST ON THE FREEDOM TRAIL combines these and takes a further step: meaning making for whom, and at whose expense?
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Bruggeman argues that despite the idea of a Freedom Trail’s potential for building community and interrogating foundational histories, its construction displaced communities, and so far, the narrative that it constructs falls short of its potential. while this book’s existence in the world cannot on its own solve these heavy problems, LOST ON THE FREEDOM TRAIL in the hands of the right students and public historians might in the long term contribute substantially to solving them. the dearth of employment opportunities among the professoriate increases the likelihood that freshly minted historical thinkers – capable and critical – might occupy some of the policymaking positions that become historical actors in this story.
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Bruggeman argues that despite the idea of a Freedom Trail’s potential for building community and interrogating foundational histories, its construction displaced communities, and so far, the narrative that it constructs falls short of its potential. while this book’s existence in the world cannot on its own solve these heavy problems, LOST ON THE FREEDOM TRAIL in the hands of the right students and public historians might in the long term contribute substantially to solving them. the dearth of employment opportunities among the professoriate increases the likelihood that freshly minted historical thinkers – capable and critical – might occupy some of the policymaking positions that become historical actors in this story.
Displaying 1 of 1 review