On the Edge of Memory: Uneasy Legacies of Dissent, Terror, and Violence in the American Landscape

Abstract

ObjectiveThe Oklahoma City bombing of 1995 has had a major impact on public memory and commemoration in the United States. My aim here is to set this bombing in the broader context of how other events of violence and terror have been remembered.MethodThat many of the examples I mention are now largely forgotten speaks to their equivocal meanings and their relatively faint imprint on the American landscape. Using a comparative case‐study methodology, I examine the tension that often arises between remembering and forgetting these events because honoring the victims necessarily calls attention to the killer and the killer's motives.ResultsTensions over the meaning of violence tend to be particularly acute when the killer's motives involve unpopular or unpalatable causes or particularly brutal crimes. In these cases, communities may try to distance themselves as far as possible from the killer and the crime.ConclusionI argue that such efforts, successful or not, lead to a certain forgetfulness about the roles violence, terror, and political dissent play in American society.