Author ORCID Identifier
0009-0007-7699-2738
Date of Award
12-11-2023
Degree Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Political Science
First Advisor
Dr. Amy Steigerwalt
Second Advisor
Dr. Sarah Allen Gershon
Third Advisor
Dr. Jelena Subotic
Abstract
The National Mall is an iconic space visited by thousands of individuals every year. The space is devoted to monuments and memorials reflecting important events, individuals, and pieces of time that have structured, supported, and created path dependencies for the narrative of the United States told today. One specific function of the National Mall is to memorialize soldiers and wars, while another is to memorialize and celebrate the individuals who have politically shaped the United States. This project focuses on the individual figure memorials placed on the National Mall, centering around the question of who gets to be placed on the National Mall, and who gets to make those decisions, and what narrative is created because of this. While the uses and relevance of the National Mall has been looked at by scholars, a number of unanswered questions remain about the ways in which the space is utilized by political figures, how the American public view these usages, and the effects of these usages on broader political narrative and memory. I argue that when looked at individually, the structures on the National Mall reveal a cycle of communication between political elite and the American public that create a narrative of American Democracy. There are two distinct stages where definition is made: the creation stage, and the post-dedication stage. Within both, there is a consistent back and forth between political elite and American citizens that reveal a clear narrative strategically used to foster nationalism, unity, and support for the spread of American Democracy.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.57709/36397041
Recommended Citation
Smith, Morgan, "Strategically Using the National Mall: Communication Cycles in the Formation of Political." Dissertation, Georgia State University, 2023.
doi: https://doi.org/10.57709/36397041
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