“So much of what is wrong with America today began with the Civil War and Reconstruction” – Jason Cochran

In this episode of Deviate, Rolf and Jason discuss the monuments at Gettysburg, and the concept of a Civil War "hero" (2:00); the revisionist post-war memorial efforts by Southern organizations (13:00); the concept of memorials, and how they shape memory (26:00); and our relationship with deceased celebrities, and how to interpret America through its monuments (40:00). 

Jason Cochran (@JasCochran), the award-winning author of Here Lies America, has been a travel authority and consumer expert for over 20 years. His work has appeared in such publications as Travel + Leisure, the New York Post, USA Today, and The New York Times. He is currently Editor-in-Chief of Frommers.com and co-host with Pauline Frommer of the weekly Travel Show on WABC. For more about Jason, check out https://jasoncochran.com/. 

Notable Links:

Battle of Gettysburg
Andersonville Historical Site
Reconstruction Era
Robert E. Lee (Commander of the Confederate Army)
United Daughters of the Confederacy (association)
Ladies Memorial Associations (Southern monument effort)
Ford' Theatre (site of Lincoln assassination)
Ken Burns (filmmaker)
Jim Crow Laws
National Lynching Memorial
The Canterbury Tales, by Geoffrey Chaucer (book)
Negro Leagues Baseball Museum
USS Maine National Monument
Grant's Tomb
Prison Ship Martyrs' Monument (Revolutionary War memorial)
National September 11 Memorial & Museum
Forest Lawn Memorial Park
Hollywood Forever Cemetery
Père Lachaise Cemetery (Paris)
Tulsa race riot (1921 massacre)
Haymarket affair (1886 Chicago incident)
Johnstown Flood

1906 San Francisco earthquake
Vietnam Veterans Memorial
Battle of Antietam
Stonewall Jackson (Civil War general)
Souvenir, by Rolf Potts (book)

This episode is brought to you by AirTreks, an industry leader in multi-stop international travel. If you’ve ever planned a trip with multiple stops, you know that finding the right flights can be difficult. Between balancing travel logistics and cost, it often becomes impossible to build an itinerary that matches your travel goals.  AirTreks is a distributed travel company with employees working from all corners of the world to help with your flight planning, specializing in complex routes with up to 25 stops. The AirTreks website offers suggested pre-planned travel itineraries to help you get started, but can customize to fit your journey.

The Deviate theme music comes from the title track of Cedar Van Tassel's 2017 album Lumber.

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