Interpreting Sacred Ground is a rhetorical analysis of Civil War battlefields and parks, and the ways various commemorative traditions-and their ideologies of race, reconciliation, emancipation, and masculinity-compete for dominance. The National Park Service (NPS) is known for its role in the preservation of public sites deemed to have historic, cultural, and natural significance. In Interpreting Sacred Ground, J. Christian Spielvogel studies the NPS's secondary role as an interpreter or creator of meaning at such sites, specifically Gettysburg Nationa