The week leading up to Independence Day 1913 was a turning point in American self-understanding and selective memory: while tens of thousands of Union and Confederate veterans gathered in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, for a “festival of national reconciliation,” over 4,000 people attended the opening of the The Hotel Ansley on the corner of Forsyth and James Streets in Atlanta to celebrate the opening of “one of the most attractive and most modern hotels in America.” It was supposed to be a bright new morning for the nation and for the “new South:” a forward-looking consolidation of national and regional identity through public memorials and private galas.
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Next Door is Closer than You Remember
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The week leading up to Independence Day 1913 was a turning point in American self-understanding and selective memory: while tens of thousands of Union and Confederate veterans gathered in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, for a “festival of national reconciliation,” over 4,000 people attended the opening of the The Hotel Ansley on the corner of Forsyth and James Streets in Atlanta to celebrate the opening of “one of the most attractive and most modern hotels in America.” It was supposed to be a bright new morning for the nation and for the “new South:” a forward-looking consolidation of national and regional identity through public memorials and private galas.