The Narrative Constitution Of American Citizenship In Collective Memory By Shoon Lio

In “Redeeming America: The Narrative Constitution of American Citizenship in Collective Memory,” Shoon Lio explores the constant revision of history utilized by Americans to position movements and events as redemption narratives of society. While not exclusive to Americans, collective action groups aim to define the talking points of historical events, shifting public perception to favor ulterior motives by shining the talking points as parables. Ch.2, “Whose Collective Memories? The Social Construction of Moral Boundaries and Social Problem Claims,” examines how the memories of these revisions are exploited as evidence to justify acts of war, violence, and social engineering. These acts by groups are to help further cause for wars, combat violence, and position perceived past moral failings to teach future generations of previous “ills” of society like the counterculture and the Great Society movements and measures in the 1960’s that Conservative members criticized. Many of these stories are repurposed with the aid of the mass media in conjunction with politicians. Obviously, politicians and journalists have a pulpit from which to expound their spin on stories and help contextualize them to a greater story weave. Examples of this include Newt Gingrich’s use of decrying …show more content…
He usually reserves just a paragraph to describe and cite an example and proceed to add its context to the overall main point. Rather than focusing on a few examples in the chapter and examining them fully, Lio illustrates some examples and then turns to a study of sociological processes and phenomena that describe these actions. The paper tends to drift off towards the end of the chapter as it gets bogged down into the minutiae of sociological phenomena and characteristics and defines many of these complex terms in relation to the previous