Product Description

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 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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #305340 in Books
• Published on: 1997-09
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 272 pages

From Library Journal
In the past decade the staff of Colonial Williamsburg has attempted to incorporate the methodology of the new social history into its interpretive program. This change meant involving the "real" people of Colonial Williamsburg?blacks, women, and the lower class. Handler (anthropology, Univ. of Virginia, Charlottesville) and Gable (sociology and anthropology, Mary Washington Coll.) apply an "ethnographic" model to analyze this change at the museum. The scope of their research?which consisted of countless visits to the museum, observation of activities, and extensive research in museum archives?is truly amazing, and the result is a fascinating book but with some limitations. The authors have done a great service in breaking down disciplinary barriers, but they sometimes fail to recognize that their readers may not be familiar with their categories or vocabulary. A good work for social scientists, historians, and those in museums.?Charles K. Piehl, Mankato State Univ., Minn.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
"In this impressive ethnography of Williamsburg, Handler and Gable take us behind the scenes and show us the roles of professional historians, front-line interpreters, corporate officials, and service workers in shaping the portrait of eighteenth-century Virginia that is presented. I know of no other book that presents such a complete and complex portrait of the museum as a social, economic, and cultural institution." - Roy Rosenzweig, George Mason University "A study quite unlike anything I've ever seen: in its depth of research, breadth of conception, theoretical sophistication, and incisiveness of judgment, it seems to me unmatched." - Peter Novick, University of Chicago "This manuscript is a deep and original work of cultural critique. It will go a long way in improving the image of cultural studies scholarship among historians, anthropologists, and others, who hold it in suspicion. I am sure this study will be much cited as such an exemplar in several fields." - George E. Marcus, Rice University

From the Publisher
Other reviews of The New History in an Old Museum:

"Examining the production of history at such an important organization is a project well worth undertaking, and the authors offer rich insights into the process."(The Journal of Southern History)

"[Handler and Gable] prove that for all the flash and smoke of the 'culture wars,' for all the radical claims of the new historians and the vicious backlash of their detractors, 'social history has hardly had the kind of insurgent effect its critics claim for it.' . . . Lively and critical."(The Village Voice)

"Drawing on intensive fieldwork conducted in 1990 and 1991, the authors explore the internal politics of the museum and its foundation and conclude that the record is decidedly mixed." "Nota Bene,"(The Chronicle of Higher Education)

"[An] accessible and . . . engaging book. . . . [I]t provides valuable insights into how history is presented and why the best intentions go awry."(Publishers Weekly)

"The scope of their research(which consisted of countless visits to the museum, observation of activities, and extensive research in the museum archives)is truly amazing, and the result is a fascinating book."(Library Journal)

"Handler and Gable elude the trap that snares most scholars of American culture by refusing to view Williamsburg's version of the American past either as dictated by some nefarious conspiracy that controls the historic site, or by the consumers who pay to visit it. . . . [A] sophisticated account of how a cacophony of voices adds up to little more than white noise."(In These Times)

"This study goes beyond the scope of most museum research (which seeks to determine the messages that are communicated to visitors), and that is what is most interesting about the book. The New History in an Old Museum explores the museum itself as a multifaceted social system that constructs its own values and transmits those values through its interpretive programs."(Winterthur Portfolio)

"The New History in an Old Museum is interesting not only for its object of study, but for what it reveals about the mechanisms of history-making; in this regard, Handler and Gable succeed in making constructivism tangible through a specific study. Another important lesson taught by [the book] concerns the university's current struggles with corporatism, and more than a few times, I found disturbing parallels between the "good vibes" consumer satisfaction approach and current trends in higher education. . . . [Recommended] for scholars and students in any of the cultural studies disciplines."(H-Net Reviews)

"Readers of this study will find new insights into the inner workings of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, and they will learn more about the choices history museums must make to remain viable as both educational institutions and places of entertainment."(Virginia Libraries)

Customer Reviews

The truth
As a current employee of The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, I have found this book to be very truthful. I have many passages highlighted. The official response of the museum was to ignore it. The front line employees of the Foundation were really hopeful that this book would be a lesson, and that they would make some needed changes. Now it is 2003, and the museum is facing some really bad times. For the past 8 years, millions and millions of dollars have been spent on back up facilities like libraries, stables, hotels, bridges, and now a fictious plantation. There has been very little done as far as the upkeep of the historic area itself, and quite honestly the place is falling apart. And now the most important element of all is in grave danger, the historic interpreters who pour their hearts and souls into CW could soon be a thing of the past. Layoffs are to be announced this September 2003. The recent purchase of recording devices, are also a giant threat to the interpreters. The interpreters make the town come alive. Colonial Williamsburg has become a place where the history really does not matter any more! For the past 2 years many of the middle management positions have been filled by former Disney employees!! Ever since the "Disney" people arrived, they no longer offer training about history at all, just customer service training. Please, if you donate money to this worthy cause, stipulate that the money be kept in the historic area, and or go into a fund to help keep the interpreters!!!

Fascinating and Informative...
This book was assigned in one of my classes and I was very impressed by it. It, despite the opinions of the above reviewer, clearly strove to be balanced and sympathetic in its discussion without losing sight of its academic aims. I found it extremely helpful in finding another way to look at the history I have been presented with at every museum or class I've been to, not just Williamsburg. I went to Williamsburg for the first time after I read this book and was much more interested in what I was seeing than I might otherwise have been -- actually thinking about what I was hearing and reading rather than simply swallowing it whole. The book itself is very well written and enjoyable as well as informative to read -- a rare thing among scholarly works. Handler and Gable did an excellent job.

Muddled handling of an interesting idea
Colonial Williamsburg is an elaborate fake, run by corporate devils who mercilessly exploit their workers, while badly distorting America's colonial history. At least that is what Handler and Gable would have us believe. There is more than a grain of truth in some of their contentions, but they undermine their case by digressing into political correctness and left-wing dogma.

The authors relate how Colonial Williamsburg's political agenda has changed to suit successive generations of scholars and managers, who have massaged "facts" accordingly. Front-line interpreters (costumed characters) are trained to parry controversial questions in order to avoid open discussion of them and to maintain the "official" line. They can become impatient with visitors' ignorance of history, and may resort to insulting them. When historians convey new or corrected information to the staff, interpreters sometimes override those directions in favor of their own views.

The historical message is contaminated further by interference from corporate officials, who are more concerned with boosting attendance and competing with theme parks than with running an historically accurate museum. The authors condemn Colonial Williamsburg as a museum that has abandoned its educational mission in favor of showing tourists a good time by building more hotels and golf courses, and which has crassly expanded retail merchandising to compete for tourist dollars. Ironically, Colonial Williamsburg sold Anheuser-Busch the land on which the Busch Gardens theme park now stands, thus helping to create its stiffest competition and spurring its efforts to increase attendance.

The authors make a number of telling points against Colonial Williamsburg's version of history, but they lose credibility by suggesting that the existing presentation merely be replaced with one designed to serve their own politically correct agenda. Although Colonial Williamsburg has come a long way in portraying the role of slaves in the colony, it isn't enough for Handler and Gable, who view those efforts as half-hearted, if not hypocritical, even on the part of some African-American interpreters. While criticizing Colonial Williamsburg for speculating about unknown areas of history in order to create a seamless presentation, the authors promote use of just such hypothetical, unsubstantiated "information" as part of a more politically correct view of 18th Century Williamsburg. For example, whether or not it can be proven that Williamsburg patriot George Wythe kept a female slave as his mistress, and perhaps fathered a child by her, the authors believe that Colonial Williamsburg should tell visitors that he did, since so many white slave owners were guilty of miscegenation.

The book bogs down badly during a lengthy leftist harangue against capitalism and corporate structure, which the authors dislike and consider inappropriate for Colonial Williamsburg, but for which they offer no alternative. Although that digression is followed by a valuable discussion of the struggle between corporate and educational priorities, the authors often confuse issues of education and history with those of corporate policy and labor relations without convincingly linking them. The result is a muddled examination of Colonial Williamsburg as a place of learning.

The work suffers from a lack of systematic data collection, relying instead on anecdotal information gleaned from interviews with officials, interpreters, visitors and others, and there is no sampling or survey data to support the book's broad contentions. The final chapter provides a lucid summary of the book's major points, but the authors have rambled for too long before reaching that point, and many readers will find the preceding chapters heavy going.

Moreover, Colonial Williamsburg is not really a museum, and it is doubtful that patrons expect to see a flawlessly accurate reproduction of the late 18th Century city. Visitors know that the costumed interpreters they encounter are performers and they accept the convention. Even with its shortcomings, Colonial Williamsburg can stimulate interest in the people and ideas that dominated political discourse on the eve of revolution and encourage visitors to learn more about them on their own.