Introduction -- Forgetting in public life : an idiomatic history of the present -- The two rivers, past and present -- Forgetting without oblivion -- Public forgetting : alternate histories, new heuristics -- Hallowed ground, hollow memory : rhetorical form and commemorative politics on September 11, 2002 -- Historical forgetting : John W. Draper and the rhetorical dimensions of history -- Cultural forgetting : the "timeless now" of nomadic memories -- Moral and political forgetting : Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address and Second Inaugural -- Conclusion
Summary
"Reconsiders the negative status attributed to forgetting in both academic and popular discussions of public memory. Demonstrates how a community may adopt idioms of forgetting in order to create new and beneficial standards of public judgment concerning the lessons and responsibilities of its shared past"--Provided by publisher
