The Mask of Memory

Jason R. Young examines how white elites in Charleston during the early twentieth century produced and exported a sanitized, romanticized memory of slavery that created durable racial stereotypes.

Focusing on literature, visual art, music, and performance, Young traces organizations and figures who curated an idealized antebellum past to bolster white claims to authenticity and authority.

The book argues these cultural productions served contemporary political and social aims, shaping national understandings of slavery and race.

Young situates these historical practices in relation to present-day culture wars over history, education, and memory.

By interrogating white racial fantasy, the work challenges recurrent myths and highlights their ongoing impact on American public life.