Download or read book America's Public Holidays, 1865-1920 written by Ellen M. Litwicki and published by Smithsonian Institution. This book was released on 2013-08-06 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the revered Memorial Day to the forgotten Lasties Day, America's Public Holidays is a timely and thoughtful analysis of how the civic culture of America has been fashioned. By analyzing how holidays became a forum for expressing patriotism, how public tradition has been invented, and how the definition of America itself was changed, Ellen Litwicki tells the intriguing story of the elite effort to create new holidays and the variety of responses from ordinary Americans.