The New History in an Old Museum: Creating the Past at Colonial Williamsburg
by Richard Handler
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"The New History in an Old Museum is an exploration of "historical truth" as presented at Colonial Williamsburg. More than a detailed history of a museum and tourist attraction, it examines the packaging of American history, and consumerism and the manufacturing of cultural beliefs. Through extensive fieldwork - including numerous site visits, interviews with employees and visitors, and archival research - Richard Handler and Eric Gable illustrate how corporate sensibility blends with show more pedagogical principle in Colonial Williamsburg to blur the lines between education and entertainment, patriotism and revisionism." "During much of its existence, the "living museum" at Williamsburg has been considered a patriotic shrine, celebrating the upscale lifestyles of Virginia's colonial-era elite. But in recent decades a new generation of social historians has injected a more populist and critical slant to the site's narrative of nationhood. For example, in interactions with museum visitors, employees now relate stories about the experiences of African Americans and women, stories that several years ago did not enter into descriptions of life in Colonial Williamsburg. Handler and Gable focus on the way this public history is managed, as historians and administrators define historiographical policy and middle-level managers train and direct front-line staff to deliver this "product" to the public. They explore how visitors consume or modify what they hear and see, and reveal how interpreters and craftspeople resist or acquiesce in being managed. By deploying the voices of these various actors in a richly textured narrative, The New History in an Old Museum highlights the elements of cultural consensus that emerge from this cacophony of conflict and negotiation."--BOOK JACKET. show lessTags
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Two anthropologists study the corporate culture of the staff and management of this famous living history museum. There goal is to evaluate how social history is being taught and the many challenges to presenting it to varied audience, most of whom are on vacation. This study took place a couple of years before I worked for CW and for the most part the authors are dead on in their criticisms, but also rightly sympathetic to the challenges museum educators face.
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8+ Works 224 Members
Richard Handler is a professor of anthropology and director of the Global Development Studies Program at the University of Virginia. His many books include Critics Against Culture: Anthropological Observers of Mass Society and HOA Volume 11, Central Sites, Peripheral Visions: Cultural and Institutional Crossings in the History of Anthropology, show more both published by the University of Wisconsin Press. show less
Classifications
- Genres
- History, Nonfiction, Anthropology, Religion & Spirituality, General Nonfiction, Art & Design, Food & Cooking, Music
- DDC/MDS
- 975.5 — History & geography History of North America Southeastern United States (South Atlantic states) Virginia
- LCC
- F234 .W7 .H27 — Local History of the United States, Canada and Latin America United States local history Virginia
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 162
- Popularity
- 201,162
- Reviews
- 1
- Rating
- (3.64)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 3
- ASINs
- 1
