National symbols are tricky cultural signposts, for they preserve not only the "victorious" definitions promoted by the nation but also the debates and controversies that have crystallized around these symbols over decades or, in some cases, centuries. This volume illuminates the rich insights national symbols offer into the historical process by which certain groups inscribe their interpretation of a nation's identity and collective memory at a given time period as well as how these inscriptions are gradually transformed as the power to "tell the national tale" shifts from one political group to another. Included here are essays on such topics as the interface of the religious and the secular in national narratives in Israel and Northern Ireland; the metamorphosis of national symbols in Germany and Russia as those nations undergo fundamental changes; alternative traditions in the American South; the different uses various societal groups make of national monuments such as the Lincoln Memorial; the instability of certain national symbols, as exemplified by the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Cairo; and, finally, the re-founding of the capital of Sri Lanka.
Collectively, these essasys demonstrate that however "perennial" or "organic" their national symbols may appear to the citizens of any given nation at any given time, these symbols are subject, to challenges, changes in signification, and, in extreme cases, loss of valuation or replacement.