The George Washington Birthplace National Monument is located in Westmoreland County, Virginia. Here there is an important structure known as the “House of Memory”, built in 1931, which serves as a replica of the house where the Father of the Nation resided until the age of three. However, the discovery of another foundation, “Building X,” spawned an eighty-year battle over the site's authenticity. This ongoing battle of "memory, ownership of the past, and the wonderfully elusive meaning of authenticity" (6), has provided Seth C. Bruggeman with a case study of cultural change over time. Seth C. Bruggeman, who teaches history and American studies at Temple University, created the monograph Here, George Washington Was Born as a survey of American memory and commemoration. This monograph evolved from his graduate student work when the National Park Services hired him to write the administrative history of the site. However, as he continued his research, Bruggeman argued that “this is neither a story about George Washington nor necessarily about the commemoration of his birth, but rather a story about how and what we choose to remember and why those choices change over time” (9 ) . That said, George Washington Was Born Here has provided readers not only with an analysis of 20th-century historic preservation, but also with in-depth insight into the field of memory studies. Essentially, Bruggeman's monograph recognizes the ongoing debate between public historians, academic historians, and the public's views in the interpretation of history. Bruggeman related this to national park services, women's membership groups, and visitors to George Washington's birthplace, “who considered the park most significant......, as this book is written as a first-person narrative, as opposed to a traditional third-person voice, the general public would find it an enlightening read due to its easy-to-follow language and layout. In essence, the book is very competently structured. The index itself is adequate, it is not separated from primary and secondary sources but is all listed in alphabetical order. However, by adding notes to the pages and including a bibliography, Bruggeman was able to provide more detailed entries. In some ways, this monograph tends toward a more encyclopedic style, as within each chapter there are subtopics that Bruggeman evaluates. While the syntax may be a bit much, Bruggeman has written an effective case study on how theoretical issues of historic preservation can influence how one interprets the site and how one can evoke one's memory of that site..