" Plymouth Rock seems "less a monument to the Pilgrims' First Landing than to America's relentless pursuit of a usable past..." Bush quotes again from Sahlins. Then the author adds, "We all want a piece of the Rock."
No matter that Plymouth Rock has perhaps been used at various times as a symbol of America's past; what is important is not the rock (or the fact that it has been chipped away), but rather what is vitally important is Bradford's remarkable historical journal, and the Mayflower Compact itself. America, the symbol known throughout the world for
"From of Plymouth Plantation." The Norton Anthology of American
Literature. Ed. Nina Baym. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 156-197.
Bush, Sargent. "America's Origin Myth: Remembering Plymouth Rock." American
Literary History 12.4 (2000): 745-756.
Pilgrim Hall Museum. "Of Plymouth Plantation: The Journal of William Bradford."
Retrieved 11 February 2007 at http://www.pilgrimhall.org/bradjour.htm.
Raible, Chris. "Mayflower compact & family compact." Beaver. 76.1 (1996): 22-27.
Sargent, Mark L. "The Conservative covenant: The rise of the Mayflower Compact in American Myth." The New England Quarterly 61.2 (1988): 233-251.
Mayflower Compact/Declaration of Indepence While remembering Pilgrims during the latter part of the 18th century- even before the Revolution leading to the formation of the country, and the establishing of the "Old Colony Club," the starting of the celebrations of "Forefathers' Day," showed clear signals as to how from the formation of the official nation, nationalistic tendencies had used the past for the purpose of the current self- justification. Among these
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