This course will examine historical literature that looks at the different ways in which historical commemorations and historical memory have been forged, the hegemonic meanings of the past created by elites, and the contestation of those meanings by those often formally excluded from these processes: women, members of ethnic and racialized groups, and the working classes. We will look at areas such as state commemorations and the creation of 'tradition', the development of museums, historical tourism, and the designation of monuments and battlefields as sites of national memory. The course will conclude with an exploration of current debates over the place of 'history' in the schools and universities.