Surveying Memory: The Past in Black and White

Griffin, Larry J.; Hargis, Peggy G.

doi:10.1353/slj.0.0017

Cited by 9 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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“…There are also differences in historical representations that have been documented between White and African-American students (Epstein, 2000;Griffin & Hargis, 2008) as well as inter-generationally (Zaromb et al, 2014).…”

Section: The Present Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Reflecting this, studies have found individual differences in interpretations of national atrocities such as slavery and Native American genocide, depending on how strongly Americans identify with their nation (Eason et al., 2021; Kurtiş et al., 2010; Wohl & Branscombe, 2008). There are also differences in historical representations that have been documented between White and African‐American students (Epstein, 2000; Griffin & Hargis, 2008) as well as inter‐generationally (Zaromb et al., 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Identifying stories of ‘us’: A mixed‐method analysis of the meaning, contents and associations of national narratives constructed by Americans

Choi,

Liu

2023

Euro J Social Psych

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How do lay individuals reconstruct, appropriate or resist culturally sanctioned narratives about their nation's past? The current study examined this question through an open‐ended survey administered to a US sample, stratified by age and gender (N = 399). We identified three major historical narratives that were popular among Americans. Specifically, we identified positive narratives of the nation's progress over time and glorifying narratives of American exceptionalism, alongside a popular counter‐narrative that was critical of the nation as reproducing ongoing cycles of injustice. Representations of national origins were significantly more salient for the narratives of Progress and Glorification, while more recent and lived events were salient for Critical narratives. Progress and Critical narratives were both associated with a constructive orientation to national identity, while Glorifying narratives were associated with blind patriotism. Critical and Glorifying narratives were consistently opposed in their associated political attitudes and in their patterns of endorsement across party affiliations. Overall, it appeared that narratives of progress were most popular and least polarised. We discuss the implications of these findings through the perspective that narratives provide dynamic content for identity construction as well as the means for articulating resistance to hegemony within specific historical and political contexts.

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Section: The Present Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%