Sense of History: The Place of the Past in American Life

by David Glassberg

Overview

As Americans enter the new century, their interest in the past has never been greater. In record numbers they visit museums and historic sites, attend commemorative ceremonies and festivals, watch historically based films, and reconstruct family genealogies. The question is, Why? What are Americans looking for when they engage with the past? And how is it different from what scholars call "history"? In this book, David Glassberg surveys the shifting boundaries between the personal, public, and professional uses of the past and explores their place in the broader cultural landscape. Each chapter investigates a specific encounter between Americans and their history: the building of a pacifist war memorial in a rural Massachusetts town; the politics behind the creation of a new historical festival in San Francisco; the letters Ken Burns received in response to his film series on the Civil War; the differing perceptions among black and white residents as to what makes an urban neighborhood historic; and the efforts to identify certain places in California as worthy of commemoration. Along the way, Glassberg reflects not only on how Americans understand and use the past, but on the role of professional historians in that enterprise. Combining the latest research on American memory with insights gained from Glassberg's more than twenty years of personal experience in a variety of public history projects, Sense of History offers stimulating reading for all who care about the future of history in America.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781558492813
Publisher:	University of Massachusetts Press
Publication date:	04/23/2001
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

David Glassberg is professor of history at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and author of American Historical Pageantry: The Uses of Tradition in the Early Twentieth Century

Editorial Reviews

"Glassberg uses a series of loosely related essays on small, sometimes seemingly insignificant, topics as a way of meditating on a large, complex, and important matter: the differences and interrelationships between the 'sense of history' among academic historians and the American people. Both public and academic historians ought to find this readable work thought-provoking and rewarding."—Choice

"David Glassberg has a very substantial scholarly reputation as one who has investigated and thoughtfully reflected on the meanings history has held for a broad range of people and communities in our society, over time. . . . This is a unique, engaging, and refreshing book, at once profound and modest—an important scholar's contribution to debates of considerable significance."—Michael H. Frisch, author of A Shared Authority: Essays on the Craft and Meaning of Oral and Public History

"Glassberg is an enormously well read guide to the literature on public history and historical consciousness, and this volume brings together the fruits of his many years of reading and practice in the field."—Roy Rosenzweig, coauthor of The Presence of the Past: Popular Uses of History in American Life

From the Publisher

Glassberg is an enormously well read guide to the literature on public history and historical consciousness, and this volume brings together the fruits of his many years of reading and practice in the field.

Roy Rosenzweig

David Glassberg has a very substantial scholarly reputation as one who has investigated and thoughtfully reflected on the meanings history has held for a broad range of people and communities in our society, over time.... This is a unique, engaging, and refreshing book, at once profound and modest -- an important scholar's contribution to debates of considerable significance.

Michael H. Frisch

Glassberg uses a series of loosely related essays on small, sometimes seemingly insignificant, topics as a way of meditating on a large, complex, and important matter: the differences and interrelationships between the 'sense of history' among academic historians and the American people. Both public and academic historians ought to find this readable work thought-provoking and rewarding.

Choice