{"product_id":"in-the-memory-house-9781555911621","title":"In the Memory House","description":"\u003cp\u003e\"Mr. Mansfield gets beneath the patina of the tangible and intangible relics of our history to locate the emotional core of our past. Through the intensity of his language  his pace  and wit  the predisposed reader can take the leap into collective memory and even catch that damp  sweet scent of the past. A wise and beautiful book.\" The New York Times Book Review  In the Memory House recalls what American society has forgotten--the land  its people  and its ideals.  Memory is a defining characteristic of New Englandthis great desire to mark the landscape with historical monuments  to crowd little museums full of small acts of homage  and to tell certain stories  writes Mansfield. Each essay in the book is about a moment of commemoration  or the failure to commemorate. At such moments  our aspirations are on full view. When we seek to honor something  we are staking a claim: This is us. In history  unlike heredity  we choose our ancestors.  Mansfield visited many small museums and local historical societies which he calls memory houses. He examined the changes in Town Meeting and the changes in our local landscape: the loss of the elms  and the bulldozing of an entire neighborhood  Bostons West End. He explored the histories of Franklin Pierce  Thoreau  Johnny Appleseed and Jack Kerouac.  We have journeyed a long way  once ever so optimistically  and find ourselves far removed from the one-room schoolhouse and the swimming hole  from the horsecar and elm-lined Main Street  says Mansfield. We try nostalgia  elegy  jeremiad. All our efforts at the recollection  and somewhere the past itself  are in the memory house.  By examining what we choose to remember  this important book reveals how progress has created absences in our landscapes and in our lives.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45960463319093,"sku":"ByrdShop_1555911625","price":20.89,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9781555911621.jpg?v=1788287975","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/in-the-memory-house-9781555911621","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}