MEMORY AS A CULTURAL SYSTEM - LINCOLN,ABRAHAM IN WORLD-WAR-II

Studies of how societies preserve the past have focused on the ''socia l frames of memory.'' This study of Abraham Lincoln during World War I I extends a semiotic interpretation of culture as it focuses on ''memo ry as a social frame.'' Memories invoked in the context of-a present c risis are rooted in generational experience. One-third of all American s living in 1940 were born during the late nineteenth century when Civ il War resentments were fading and remembrances of Lincoln were more p ositive and vivid than ever This generation understood the meaning of World War II by ''keying'' it to the Civil War. Patterned arrays of im ages of Lincoln were invoked by local and federal agencies to clarify the purpose of World War II, legitimate tile preparations for it, and then to orient, inspire, and console the people who fought it. As a mo del for the present and of the present, images of Lincoln comprised a cultural system that rationalized the Experience war. I compare and co ntrast memory as a cultural system with constructionist theories of co llective memory and discuss it in light of the erosion of American soc iety's grand narratives.