| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 88.3

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| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 88.3 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

America's Public Holidays, 1865–1920. By Ellen M. Litwicki. (Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 2000. x, 293 pp. $39.95, ISBN 1-56098-863-0.)

Like their colleagues in folklore, historians are beginning to probe the meaning of public celebrations and holidays. American historians have done a nice job of exploring the cultural meaning of antebellum celebrations, but only a few recent works examine the celebrations of the pivotal Gilded Age and Progressive Era. In America's Public Holidays, Ellen M. Litwicki examines a large number of new holidays established during this period, both government-sanctioned holidays and other celebrations. 1

Litwicki argues that there is a profound difference between holidays that were part of the official culture and those that were part of what John Bodnar has termed the "vernacular culture." Civic elites planned official holidays to provide an alternative to improper amusements and to teach immigrants American history and the importance of middle-class values to success. The holidays of the vernacular culture—those of African Americans, labor unions, and ethnic Americans—presented a particular point of view and emphasized that group's importance in American history. . . .

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