Faning the Flames of Partriotism: The American Bicentennial Celebration

Abstract

This thesis explores how the Bicentennial worked to re-forge a fracturing American society, to recreate a sense of American identity and to reinforce important conceptions of American civil religion. The Bicentennial utilized various ways to accomplish these tasks. The celebration itself became the primary vector for accomplishing this task, through the creation of a common framework, as communities both big and small celebrated. Bicentennial events such as the American Freedom train brought American civil religious icons to the American population reinforcing what it meant to be an American. Finally, popular culture especially mass media was used as a way of getting the Bicentennial message out. It provided both an introduction to and it reinforced those American civil religious icons deemed important. The Bicentennial celebration was able to re-forge, recreate and reinforce American civil religious icons, which was aimed at healing the divisions in American life.