In 1989, historians and researchers Roy Rosenzwieg and David Thelen gave birth to the ideas that would form The Presence of the Past. Their research stretched into the 1990s, and enough data was gathered for the book to be published at the end of the decade. Devoted to their project, the authors surveyed over 800 Americans and included a smaller minority sampling, to present an overview of how Americans interact with and perceive history. Their finding are encouraging, as they concluded that 91% of those surveyed had participated in at least one of the ten historical activities included in the survey over the past year. These results are invaluable to historians in the academic world, as they mean that almost all Americans have an active interest in history. The responsibility now lies with professionals in the field of history to facilitate and encourage a deeper interest in history by creating educational experiences for all Americans. For instance, public historians working at a museum have the responsibility to create the best possible experience for their visitors, ensuring that they will visit the institution again in the future, and hopefully other historical institutions.
Making history personally relevant is an important theme in The Presence of the Past. Whether this is done by a public historian connecting museum visitors to historical exhibits, or sharing family stories at a reunion, this personal connection to history is the most important element. Those surveyed for the project were asked about the most important event in their life. Many of those events were personal, but even those that were national events carried a personal attachment to what occurred. Americans are active in history as long is it pertains to them on an individual level. This helps us to understand why many participants described high school history class as "boring", because they could not and did not want to relate to a top-down overview of events irrelevant to their lives. This is important for academic historians to understand, because they have the opportunity to bring the rich subject of history into more lives if they can tackle the subject on a personal level and make it relevant to their audience.
The inclusion of Native Americans and African Americans at the end of the book is very important. As students of public history, it is our responsibility to understand all sides of a historical narrative. Everyone should be included in the story, not just those of white European descent. History had long been constructed by the dominant force in society, but that does not give anyone a right to disregard the other contributing voices. Those outside the majority have their own rich history to respect and learn from. As this survey shows, Native Americans and African Americans have as much of an attachment to history as the rest of the nation, if not more so because of traumatic events in their past.
The Presence of the Past is an important tool for all in the field of history. It shows us that we do not have that task of filling an empty vessel with historical knowledge. Instead, we have the privilege of working with our audience to build upon their experiences, and continue to make history personally relevant to the American public.
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2 comments:
I agree that some of the findings of this survey are very encouraging for historians. Having the confirmation that a larger audience is interested in history, and that people still find ways to connect to the past, is indeed a very positive result.
I also agree that it is now the responsibility of historians – and public historians – to reach out better to the public. By keeping museums and historic places interactive and attractive. But also maybe through the popularization of some studies or researches, by making books more accessible to everybody. It is important to reach out to the public, but it is also central to remind them that there is a larger picture to history, that they cannot only focus on what is related to them, or what they can relate to themselves.
You bring up a good about the need for under represented stories to be incorporated into the larger American history. This focus on these stories actually made me wonder if the authors desire to bring this history more within the realm of professional history. By acknowledging the rich and diverse stories that were bing told by these groups, it could be argued that they placed a challenge out there for more serious scholarship to be pursued. If this is the case, I wonder what is the role "professional" history should play in the culture and history of such close knit communities?
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