[ePub] Ibsen in Practice: Relational Readings of Performance; Cultural Encounters and Power (Methuen Drama Engage) by Frode Helland in Arts-Photography

Review

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful. Independence Hall In American Memory.By Eric WilliamsIndependence Hall In American Memory. Author: Charlene Mires. 368 pages. 2002.If you visit Independence Hall today you will see a typical Georgian public building surrounded by open spaces and other buildings from the colonial to the early federal period. Mostly what you will see though is the building itself; due to the scarcity of buildings on the north side which provides lovely vistas of the structure.The structure itself stands frozen in time. A memorial to the transition from an unhappy colony to an independent country. The building witnessed the debates and proclamations of Independence; the struggles to form a country and for ten years served as a national capital. Its architecture provided a link to the recent separation. When the capital moved on to Washington DC; the Georgian architecture was cast aside in favor of more Roman structures; as the founders sought to build the new nation on the foundations of the Roman Republic.This book follows the history of this building and the landscape around it from its inception through its current incarnation. Besides the evolution of the physical structure it also discusses the building as symbol and the meaning and use of the symbol and its meaning through time.What I found most interesting about this book was what you do not see when you visit Independence National Historical Park. When a building is frozen in time what is lost is what happened to it before it was frozen and the context of that journey. During the British occupation of Philadelphia the building served as a stable and a prison for captured American officers. When the US capital was moved to its current location the building reverted to a city governmental structure with a museum of natural history; and art on the second floor. This was in many ways a fore runner to the Smithsonian complex in one structure. The building did not really begin to register in the national conscious beyond the city of Philadelphia (who still owns the structure) until the visit in 1824 of Lafayette. Even after this visit the city grew up around the structure. Buildings harboring immigrants; blacks; Jews; and factories littered the landscape in many cases dwarfing the structure on all sides.The structure really did not gain prominence in the nation as a touring destination until the 20th century with the rise of the interstate. Even then; the Liberty Bell was a far stronger symbol and touchstone of national myth and feeling.This book is greatly enhanced by its choice of photographs which show the building and its surroundings over a period of time from its time as a small building choked in an inner city environment until its current position is international icon. While the text explains; the pictures graphically demonstrate.This book is in the end a very interesting book because it tells the story of what you do not see when you visit Independence Hall. It tells the story of people and social movements which passed through the Hall or made it a backdrop for their live sand activities.1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. Not your usual historical discourseBy A ReaderA fascinating history of Independence Hall in Philadelphia in a different style than the normal textbook discourse. Mires approach of using the building and property as the focus of the social and political history that happened in and around Independence Hall is very original in that one begins to think about the building in the first person. The book uniquely expresses the history of everyday life and its continuum as people and events come and go through the Old State House.While the building remains standing; history pours through it; and the building has survived as a sort of crucible in which that history could transpire.Its not the same as reading a book about the history of other structures such as the White House that has been used for a singular purpose in its entire existence. The Old State House was used for many different purposes by a variety of people...all of whom the building had different meaning and worth as a historical relic. To read about Independence Hall from this perspective has added meaning and depth to what I have been able to learn on my own. Excellent work.0 of 1 people found the following review helpful. Remembering and forgetting democracyBy Arthur DigbeePhiladelphia’s Independence Hall is a kind of Disneyland attraction. The setting is fake; and the building itself highly manicured. It no longer plays any of its original roles but exists solely as a place for visitors to look at.Independence Hall has had many purposes over the years. Though Mires discusses all of them; her overall theme is how the United States has transformed a vibrant place for civic engagement into a static place for commemorating a brief period of history.As this suggests; destruction is part of memory. To create Independence Mall and the historic district; the National Park Service and Philadelphia urban planners demolished commercial buildings; small factories; and rundown neighborhoods of African-Americans and Eastern European Jews. In the 1950s; Americans did not want to remember business history or social history; and they didn’t want a furniture factory outlet near an eighteenth-century shrine. Those choices are highly political.The story here is often fascinating. Mires moves between history; how we remember history; and how our memory creates new history. It’s a readable scholarly book; very accessible to the kind of people who read the footnoted histories you find in a major bookstore. It provides an illuminating look at Independence Hall itself and at wider themes of memory.