Kammen, Michael.
Mystic Chords of Memory: The Transformation of Tradition in American Culture.
Alfred A. Knopf, 1991. Author-signed first edition. 0394577698  864 pages.
Volume is bound in quarter maroon cloth and maroon paper-covered boards, with bright stamped gilt lettering to spine and front cover. Book is in excellent condition. Pages are clean and bright. Dust jacket shows light shelfwear. Author has signed "Ithaca / Michael Kammen" on the front flyleaf.
"In this groundbreaking, panoramic work of American cultural history, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of "A Machine That Would Go of Itself" examines a central paradox of our national identity. How did "the land of the future" acquire a past? And to what extent has our collective memory of that past—as embodied in our traditions—been distorted, or even manufactured? Ranging from John Adams to Ronald Reagan, from the origins of Independence Day celebrations to the controversies surrounding the Vietnam War Memorial, from the Daughters of the American Revolution to immigrant associations, and filled with incisive analyses of such phenonema as Americana and its collectors, "historic" villages and Disneyland, "Mystic Chords of Memory" is a brilliant, immensely readable, and enormously important book."