Popular Media and the American Revolution

<p>The American Revolution--an event that gave America its first real story as an independent nation distinct from native and colonial origins--continues to live on in the public's memory celebrated each year on July 4 with fireworks and other patriotic displays. But to identify as an American is to connect to a larger national narrative one that begins in revolution. In <i>Popular Media and the American Revolution </i>journalism historian Janice Hume examines the ways that generations of Americans have remembered and embraced the Revolution through magazines newspapers and digital media. </p><p>Overall <i>Popular Media and the American Revolution </i>demonstrates how the story and characters of the Revolution have been adjusted adapted and co-opted by popular media over the years fostering a cultural identity whose founding narrative was sculpted ultimately in revolution. Examining press and popular media coverage of the war wartime anniversaries and the Founding Fathers (particularly uber-American hero George Washington) Hume provides insights into the way that journalism can and has shaped a culture's evolving collective memory of its past. </p><p><strong>Dr. Janice Hume</strong> is a professor and head of the Department of Journalism in the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia. She is author of <i>Obituaries in American Culture</i> (University Press of Mississippi 2000) and co-author of <i>Journalism in a Culture of Grief </i>(Routledge 2008). </p>