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Review
"Emily S. Rosenberg has written a splendid history of the contested memories of Pearl Harbor over the past sixty years, memories that frame American opinions of everything from President Franklin D. Roosevelt's war against the Axis to President George W. Bush's war against the axis of evil."--James M. McPherson, author of Hallowed Ground: A Walk at Gettysburg "To trace and analyze the changing images of the Pearl Harbor attack held by generations of Americans is a daunting task, requiring the skills of a seasoned cultural and social historian. Emily S. Rosenberg superbly fits the requirements. This is the best, perhaps the only, study of the Pearl Harbor icon."--Akira Iriye, author of Pearl Harbor and the Coming of the Pacific War "Emily S. Rosenberg has given us a fine, concise study of war, memory, and mythmaking in America that will prove equally appealing to teachers, students, and general readers."--John W. Dower, author of Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II "Shortly after the fiftieth-anniversary ceremonies at the USS Arizona Memorial in December 1991, I viewed this sacred American relic using a snorkel and mask in the waters of Pearl Harbor. The battleship still endures, bleeding drops of oil with regularity, attracting the curious and the reverent, anchoring in a site the command 'Remember Pearl Harbor.' But what are we asked to remember? Emily S. Rosenberg's welcome book is about the history of the use of the powerful symbol of 'Pearl Harbor,' a symbol as enduring and haunting as the USS Arizona itself."--Edward T. Linenthal, author of Sacred Ground: Americans and Their Battlefields "Emily Rosenberg understands that over time cultural symbols that matter in any society are manipulated by all kinds of agents and invested with various meanings. Her insightful book demonstrates well that, during and after World War II, Pearl Harbor meant much more to Americans than the opening battle of a war."----John Bodnar, Pacific Historical Review "[F]illed with stimulating insights..."--David Cozy, The Japan Times "Noteworthy." --Victorino Matus, Washington Post "Historian Rosenberg has deviated from the usual just-the-facts approach or the deep paranoia attached to most Pearl Harbor books, and instead meditates on the terrible day's sacred position as a memory artifact for Americans. Remember Pearl Harbor, as the saying goes--but remember what?-- Burl Burlingame, Honolulu Star-Bulletin "Highly recommended. All levels and libraries."--L. Maley III, Choice "A Date Which Will Live makes a valuable contribution to understanding how World War II is perceived in American cultural memory. The author ... is judicious in her survey of viewpoints on Pearl Harbor."--Michael C.C. Adams, Journal of Military History "Particularly compelling [is] the analysis of Pearl Harbor in the context of September 11, 2001..."--James Deutsch, American Studies International "No one familiar with Rosenberg's work will be surprised to learn that A Date Which Will Live is both high-quality scholarship and a pleasure to read. The strengths of Rosenberg's earlier books and articles are present here: attentiveness to ambiguity and nuance, a beguiling prose style, and-most important-a capacity to break down the barriers between diplomatic and cultural history so thoroughly that one often forgets the obdurateness with which those fields have been segregated until recently... A Date Which Will Live is a major achievement that fully measures up to the standards we have come to expect from this scholar."-- Seth Jacobs, Reviews in American History "[Rosenberg's] insightful book demonstrates well that, during and after World War II, Pearl Harbor meant much more to Americans than the opening battle of a war."-- John Bodnar, Pacific Historical Review "[A]n important book in understanding the power of history as national myth. As Rosenberg so deftly shows, national myth possesses an emotional armor that often defies the best efforts of careful scholarship and human reason."-- Gregory J.W. Urwin, North Carolina Historical Review "We live in interesting times. Rosenberg's meticulous study of the 'memory icon' of Pearl Harbor, analyzing the shifting patterns of American thought on the uses of history in modern culture, ought to be required reading for all up-to-date historians and for those wondering why their grasp on history is slipping through their fingers."-- Burl Burlingame, Hawaiian Journal of History "[A] clear and succinct study..."-- Alice Yang Murray, Journal of Asian Studies "A Date Which Will Live is a scholarly, well-documented, comprehensive analysis of the significance of Pearl Harbor to Americans. It provides a fine review of the numerous attitudes and interpretations that a nation may have as regards a shaping event in its history."-- Armand Hage, Journal of Pacific History "[A]cute..."-- Michael Schaller, The International History Review "[Rosenberg] skillfully illuminates the intersection between memory and history... A Date Which Will Live brims with insight, sharp analysis, and a keen sense of irony. It marks a welcome addition to an increasingly vibrant genre of cultural history."-- Robert J. McMahon, Western Historical Quarterly "A Date Which Will Live is a penetrating and elegant work of cultural and social history that challenges the contrived distinctions that are frequently drawn between 'high' and 'low' history, or between so-called 'rational' history and 'nostalgic' myth. Instead, it explores the intertextuality that exists between cultural memory, historical production, media representation, and public political discourse, and the intense political contests that lie behind the articulation of national narratives... In sum, this is an excellent book that makes a genuine contribution to the growing literature on the national myths and narratives that lie at the centre of American identity and political discourse."-- Richard Jackson, Journal of American Studies "In unravelling the circlings of memory which connect the notorious sinking of the battleship Arizona to the destruction of the World Trade Center towers, [Rosenberg] brings into play a rich consortium of bearings... Her account, overall, displays not only acuity but also winning succinctness, the Pearl Harbor of the one wartime American history refigured through those both before and in its wake."-- Robert A. Lee, Journal of American Studies "Rosenberg's book is a welcome addition to recent studies that explore the social and cultural struggle between objective "history" and subjective personal or public memory to preserve, reconstruct, analyze or use the past."-- Carol Reardon and Robert Citino, World War II "Professor Rosenberg has chosen a wonderful subject to explore. This accessible, absorbing, and thought-provoking study of an iconic tragedy's contested meanings is sure to spark lively debate in the classroom and to be a welcome addition on many college reading lists."-- Naoko Shibusawa, Journal of American History "A Date Which Will Live is a thought-provoking bit of cultural history, written in a lively and lucid style, a useful primer for students new to the methods of history/memory and seeking to understand just how it lays bare the vicissitudes of cultural representation of the people's war. Rosenberg's study makes a persuasive case for the urgency of rejecting the pursuit of a 'final' historical or representational truth about historical events and national formations in favor of understanding 'the "texture" of memories' (4)."-- Caroline Chung Simpson , Journal of Asian American Studies "Emily Rosenberg examines in illuminating detail how Pearl Harbor and its legacy have been constructed and circulated in a variety of media as well as in public pronouncements and commemorative venues in the United States... The result of her meticulous scholarly craftsmanship, informed by the latest literature on historical memory, is a fully textured exegesis of this secular American icon, and a chronicle of societal developments that contributed to Pearl Harbor's renewed visibility in American culture in the last few decades... Rosenberg's book serves as a somber and timely reminder of how the state can appropriate historical memory as a medium for propagating patriotic lore and abetting hero worship, and how private-sector entities participate by fulsomely simplifying and spectacularizing history."-- Sayuri Guthrie-Shimizu, Diplomatic History "This fine book helps us to understand the cluster of memories that surround the attack at Pearl Harbor, a defining moment in American history, and how these memories informed the nation's interpretation of another 'infamous' attack almost sixty years later."--June Hopkins, Canadian Journal of History "A Date Which Will Live is largely jargon-free and is very well grounded in the emerging literature on public memory and culture. It is, in the manner of the best of such work, full of interesting and pungent detail, so much so that an adequate summary in the space of a short review is not possible. I recommend this book."--Peter W. Black, Pacific Affairs "Some books are meant for a popular audience, some for an audience of academic specialists. This book is meant for both. The subject of memory as a field of historical exploration is new enough that specialists wishing to get their feet wet will find this a useful, even penetrating volume. Yet the author and her publisher are clearly hoping to reach the wider audience of readers who are caught up in efforts to harness the meaning of Pearl Harbor to contemporary events. These readers, too, could do no better than to start with this interesting and lively volume."--Michael J. Hogan, American Historical Review "Rosenberg's analysis ranges over an impressive variety of subjects... She has brought in all the most important theoretical elements, but never lets them overwhelm the narrative--this is a book which is as enjoyable as it is informative."--JFV, Canadian Military History "A Date Which Will Live brims with insight, sharp analysis, and a keen sense of irony. It marks a welcome addition to an increasingly vibrant genre of cultural history."-- Robert J. McMahon, Western Historical Quarterly "This accessibl...
Product Description
December 7, 1941 - the date of Japan's surprise attack on the U.S. fleet at Pearl Harbor - is 'a date which will live' in American history and memory, but the stories that 'will live' and the meanings assigned to them are hardly settled or singular. In movies, books, and magazines, at memorial sites, in ceremonies, and on television and the internet, Pearl Harbor lives in a thousand guises and symbolizes dozens of historical lessons."A Date Which Will Live" examines Pearl Harbor in American history and memory. Historian Emily S. Rosenberg does not try to determine the truth of this iconic event, but rather to explore the variety of cultural meanings - and political contests - that have been attached to the words "Pearl Harbor." Rosenberg considers the emergence of Pearl Harbor symbolism from multiple perspectives: as the day of infamy that upended ideas of U.S. military preparedness, the attack that opened a 'back-door' for U.S. involvement in World War II, a commemorated event, and a rupture in American-Japanese relations.She explores the numerous, overlapping cultural contexts that have contributed to Pearl Harbor's resurgence in American memory since the fiftieth-year anniversary in 1991. Among these she identifies a 'memory boom' in American culture, the movement to exonerate commanders Admiral Husband Kimmel and General Walter Short, and the political mobilization of various groups during the culture and history 'wars' of the 1990s, as well as the effect of the blockbuster movie "Titanic" in propelling historical spectacles such as the film "Pearl Harbor" to theater screens. Rosenberg also discusses the use of Pearl Harbor as a historical frame for understanding the events of September 11, 2001.
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