The American Founding in Public Memory

Abstract: This presentation concerned the role of journalism in forging early collective memory of the American Revolution. Journalists pre-dated history scholars by decades. Their stories of revolutionary events and people were often used as primary source material for the earliest national and state histories. Later, magazines and newspapers looked back at the nation’s founding with nostalgia and awe, building a national narrative for their expanding audiences during the first half of the 19^th century.