Recasting the Bonds of Affection

Abstract

Americans tend to take their patriotism for granted. Come the Fourth of July, foreigners struggle to be festive as Americans indulge in earnest and heartfelt, though often sanctimonious and mercenary, celebrations of their nation’s “birthday.” Most Americans are blithely unaware that the patriotic symbols and rituals they regard as timeless expressions of the national spirit are in fact of very recent origin. While Memorial Day was first observed in 1868, it was not enshrined as a national holiday until 1971; the Pledge of Allegiance was not written until 1891; and the national anthem, “The Star-Spangled Banner,” was not approved until 1931.Presidential icons were even slower to be enshrined in the pantheon ofnational heroes—the Washington Memorial was finally completed in 1884, 36years after construction began, after lack of funds delayed completion; the muchvaunted Lincoln Memorial was not finished until May 1922; the Jefferson Memorial was dedicated by Franklin D. Roosevelt (F.D.R.) as recently as 1943; and the Roosevelt Memorial, after much controversy, was consecrated in 1997. The latter holds the record for the fastest presidential memorial to be built—itwas opened only 53 years after F.D.R.’s death.