Edward Linenthal


Edward Tabor Linenthal is an American academic who specializes in religious and American studies, and particularly memorials and other sacred spaces.

Biography and scholarship

Linenthal received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Santa Barbara and worked for 25 years at the University of Wisconsin–Oshkosh, in religious studies. He is currently at Indiana University, in the history department. In his youth, Linenthal played drums for a rock band called 'The Thyme' who often opened for well known acts such as Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Cream band, The Who, and MC5 at the Grande Ballroom and The Union Street Station among other locations.
Linenthal is the author of four scholarly monographs, and has served as the editor-in-chief of The Journal of American History. One of his research interests is "sacred ground", that is, the places that are sanctified by sacrifice of one sort of another --this is the topic of his Sacred Ground, an interest which led to an involvement with the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. He is a consultant with the National Park Service, and has worked on such memorials as the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum; his Preserving Memory describes various controversies and debates pertaining to the planning and building of the museum.

Books

Authored