"Makes a useful scholarly contribution as an informative excavation of place and memory in the early American republic."
"Chambers's enthusiasm for visiting and studying battlefields has spurred him to write a thoroughly reseached volume that goes a long way toward explaining how, for better or worse, American nationalism became rooted in blood-soaked ground."
"Thomas Chambers's engaging and illuminating book describes an era when Americans had little interest in either preserving or touring sites, such as Fort Ticonderoga and Yorktown, that have become gems of America's heritage.. The research on which Chambers draws includes diaries, guidebooks, speeches, art, and his own visits to every battlefield from the Seven Years' War through the War of 1812 cited in his book."
David F. Riggs, author of Embattled Shrine: Jamestown in the Civil War:
"Thomas A. Chambers has written a fascinating account of the motivations, methods, and discoveries of Americans who visited their earliest battlefields, and how this ultimately evolved into the preservation movement. His narrative is engaging and meticulously researched, with perceptive analysis."
"Chambers explores how and why key American battlefields became memorials and tourist attractions, and the potentially powerful psychological and emotional effect these sites can have on visitors evoking the past.... His descriptions demonstrate first-hand knowledge of each place as well as deep research into primary sources. Fascinating and original, this is recommended to scholars and informed readers of American military and cultural history."
"His sources are rich with personal interactions with battlefields: speeches given at dedications, guide books, and perhaps most compellingly, diaries and letters of visitors to the fields.... Chambers not only explains how those of the Early Republic came to construct memories of their past, but he also inspires public historians to think about how contemporary visitors do the same."
Sarah Purcell, Grinnell College, author of Sealed with Blood: War, Sacrifice, and Memory in Revolutionary America:
"In the engaging Memories of War, Thomas A. Chambers does a great job of analyzing tourism at some of the most significant early battle sites in U.S. history. He skillfully shows the political consequences of the personal experiences of battlefield visitors. Tourists at historic sites, as well as scholars interested in military history, memory, and cultural history, will find this book appealing and satisfying."
"This fascinating study is ideal reading for the ongoing sesquicentennial of the Civil War and bicentennial of the War of 1812. It offers a close examination of just how overgrown fields and crumbling fortresses came to be reclaimed as objects worthy of preservation and visitation."
"Elegantly written and imaginatively researched, Chambers's book draws a welcome connection between constructions of memory and individual encounters with place. The book is especially illuminating when the author grounds visitors' particular perceptions of place in their prevailing hopes and anxieties, such as in his excellent final chapter set amid the bitter section controversy of the 1850s."
"Chambers presents rich descriptions of iconic figures and their battles as well as details of contemporary travel, accommodations, and experiences in voices of time. A fine study accompanied by maps, renderings of landscapes and battlefields, and portraits of protagonists that illustrate how the meaning of historic places and memory changed, as did the motivation for visiting them between the 1760s and 1850s."
"Solidly researched and clearly written.... Chambers has moved the debate about public memory into new territory. This is a valuable book that demands respect from historians of the early republic."
"Thomas A. Chambers makes a significant contribution to the field of memory studies with his treatment of early American battlefield tourism, commemoration, and preservation. Chambers's study relies heavily on the accounts of early travelers to the battlefields of the Seven Years' War, American Revolution, and War of 1812 in New York, Virginia, South Carolina, and Canada. Memories of War: Visiting Battlegrounds and Bonefields in the Early American Republic is an excellent book that makes an important contribution to understanding the preservation and commemoration of these historic battlefields."
