Includes bibliographical references.

Afterward : an introduction -- A for absence -- Surfacing -- A for ancestry -- The path -- A for answers -- Notes toward building the memorial in Somerset County, Pennsylvania -- A for anatomy -- Bystanders : the yellow flowers -- Victims : the end of the world -- Perpetrators : undrawn lines -- A for ache -- The definite article -- A for accident -- This day in history -- Doors -- A for accumulation -- What I was doing there -- Phantoms (a correspondence) -- Reflecting mirror : Orlando, the day after -- Hallow this ground -- Aftermath : a conclusion.

"Beginning outside the boarded-up windows of Columbine High School and ending almost twelve years later on the fields of Shiloh National Military Park, Hallow This Ground revolves around monuments and memorials--physical structures that mark the intersection of time and place. In the ways they invite us to interact with them, these sites teach us how to negotiate shared histories. Colin Rafferty explores places as familiar as his hometown of Kansas City and as alien as the concentration camps of Poland in an attempt to understand not only our common histories, but also his own past, present, and future. Rafferty blends the travel essay with the lyric, the memoir with the analytic, in this meditation on the ways personal histories intersect with history, and how those intersections affect the way we understand and interact with place"--Provided by publisher.

Description based on print version record.