The Presence of the Past

In their work, Presence of the Past: Popular Uses of History in American Life , authors Roy Rosenzweig and David Thelen make the argument that historians often find themselves in a separate group from those that do not study history professionally due to the “present public ignorance of our cultural heritage.” To try and prove or disprove that theory, the book by Thelen and Rosenzweig studies how the typical American views the past through a series of surveys. The end result of the surveys showed that the typical American does try and engage with the past as much as possible.
The results of their surveys were as follows:
- More than 4/5 of those surveyed had taken photos to preserve memories
- 3/5 had visited a historical site or museum
- -2/5 had worked on hobbies related to the past such as genealogy
To these “popular history makers” it was decided that family and personal past is what matters to the typical American the most. And this is something, I believe that is becoming more and more popularized with enterprises such as Ancestry.com or various TV shows dedicated to studying genealogy. I believe this trend will only continue to grow as more and more Americans are taking several hundred pictures a year of their families. That specific statistic isn’t stated in the book; however it is supported.  A majority of those that were surveyed take pictures to preserve memories and about ninety percent enjoy looking at old family photos.
In a separate survey, Thelen and Rosenzweig asked how connected to the past each person felt. It is true that less than a quarter of those surveyed felt like they had a special connection to United States history. The larger majority felt that they felt a connection with their personal past such as ethnic group.  This seems to be in direct correlation with those that expressed their connection with family past and their experiences going through family photos and studying genealogy. An example of this from the book is of a man with African American ancestry in the south who felt a connection upon meeting his future wife via their shared experiences in growing up in the south in the 1950’s.
In their third survey, the pair tries to discover what types of “past” average Americans find to be most important. Again, like in the previous two examples, people for the most part chose the past that affects them directly using pronouns such as “we” and “our”. It appeared that many of the non-white groups that were surveyed had a more direct appreciation of their particular past. One Native American woman mentioned that her past and identification as a Native American made up who she was and helps develop her culture. She stated: “If we lose our culture then we cease to be Indians.”
As a result of their endeavor, Rosenzweig and Thelen can claim that they were able to prove several things. First off, historians who believe that they were in a separate group from the average American was correct in some degree. Many Americans saw “historian history” as something focused on famous people and events and something that they focused on in school and didn’t feel the need to put much thought into. (Of course this wasn’t every  American). However, the assumption that the average American does not put much thought into the past is absolutely not true. Those Americans who identify with their culture, spend hours attempting to reconstruct their family history on Ancestry.com, and reminisce while cleaning out their grandma’s attic are taking a very personal look into the past which they can’t get from school or from historians.
It is of my personal opinion that as we are becoming more and more adept at capturing memories through photographs and find more convenience searching our family records through the digitization of those records the average Americans’ relationship with the past will only continue to grow.
Thelen and Rosenzweig also successfully prove the point that just because a memory does not include Robert E. Lee and the Battle of Gettysburg; doesn’t make it any less important or any less a part of history. As a teacher to students who weren’t born until 2002, my personal memories and recollections of what happened on September 11, 2001 are just as valid of a historical narrative as teaching them the names of the government officials who were there. My personal memories of September 11th and my grandma’s recollection of the JFK assassination or her father’s recollection of Pearl Harbor will not be found in any history book or recounted by any historian; but that doesn’t mean it is not reflective of the “presence of the past” for the average American.

Questions to Consider
1. Is it possible, from a public history standpoint, for our personal histories to have meaning for people outside our families or ethnic group?
2. What did the Native American woman mean when she said “if we lose our culture we cease to be Indians?”
3. How important is memory in maintaining the past?