It would be interesting enough to have a book attacking heritage tourism, as does Gettysburg: Memory, Market, and an American Shrine. It becomes more interesting when the book is reviewed by someone lauding commercial development of Gettysburg, as this fellow does.

Weeks makes a convincing case that Gettysburg owes its special status to the marketplace. Nationalists might not like to hear it, but the shrine that prompts so much flag waving and solemn devotion is also a major moneymaker. PBS viewers, enchanted by the epic struggle portrayed in Ken Burns’ Civil War documentary, might also want to reflect on the assorted capitalists that kept the shrine in business in the dark days before public TV. It takes elitism of one form or another to revere Gettysburg while reviling the market that has helped shape its meaning.