Sustaining Identity, Recapturing Heritage ― Exploring Issues of Public History, Tourism, and Race in a Southern Rural Town

Examining heritage sites and public history in Luray, Virginia, Denkler (history, Shenandoah U.) describes how the white community of Luray has managed to impose its vision of identity onto the commemorative landscape, particularly in connection to the German-Swiss founding families and Confederate soldiers. She also discusses how this construction of identity has marginalized the history of African American and American Indians in the town, focusing in part on white attempts to discredit the oral history surrounding the most prominent African American public history site in Luray, the slave auction block. Other topics addressed include the ability of Luray to resist changes to their conceptions of heritage that could have come from tourism and an exhibition at the Shenandoah National Park's visitor center as an example of critical and political public history. Annotation c2008 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Ann Elizabeth Denkler is assistant professor of history at Shenandoah University.