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.
