Review

General Books

In Sense of History, David Glassberg examines a variety of forms of American popular history to explore the way in which Americans have given meaning to their past. He argues that the popular value given to history is tied to historical places and the meaning given to them by individuals and groups. He divides his book into seven chapters, plus a preface and conclusion. Two of the chapters (One and Five) are theoretical. Glassberg holds that public history does not reflect a monolithic understanding of history but rather demonstrates that there are competing versions of history. Central to his argument is that a sense of history as it applies to place is socially constructed.	1
The other chapters are a series of case studies, or what Glassberg terms "models of investigation," on the public use of history. In the most interesting study, Chapter Two, the author examines the history of the World War I memorial in Orange, Massachusetts. The monument, built in the 1930s in a competitive environment of veterans who wanted to keep the memory of the war alive and pacifists who wanted to change the meaning of war, depicts a soldier telling a story to a boy clutching a book. Written on a tablet on the front base are the words "It Shall Not Be Again." With such a strong anti-war message, the monument became an emblem for pacifist groups. But Glassberg also discusses how veterans liked the monument because it placed them in a special position of teaching about the war. The study of the memorial, however, also looks at how the meaning of the monument changed over time and became integral to Orange's town identity where the veteran came to represent "loyal service" to maintaining "the town's way of life for their children" (p. 51). Here the author successfully highlights how a historical place such as a monument can have multiple meanings that change over time, and how those meanings often reflect both national and local concerns. Chapter Seven, a study of the development of historic space in California since the late nineteenth century, also examines how history and place has personal meaning at a local level. Focusing on pioneer societies in California, the author shows how people involved themselves in preservationist activities out of personal sentiment that motivated them to keep their ancestors memories of places alive.	2
In Chapter Three, concerned with how historical presentations serve interest groups, Glassberg studies the Portola Festival in San Francisco in 1909. This civic celebration, run by local politicians and businessmen, presented the city as a "fun place" that maintained ethnic unity. Glassberg adeptly tells the story of how this celebration of San Francisco's history was meant to serve the interests of civic leaders, and that labor groups were excluded from the Festival. Glassberg often targets his "models of investigation" towards historians of local history and preservationists to suggest new ways of presenting public history. This is particularly true in Chapter Six where the author examines the meaning of "town character" in three New England towns to show that residents have diverse understandings of town character. An important emphasis in his study is what he terms "memory sites," places associated with personal and family memories that "are validated through conversations with others" (p. 158). In a series of public meetings with residents in Northfield, Massachusetts, for example, Glassberg discovered "cherished" and "lost" sites that included buildings like the Northfield Inn that housed local dances and a fondly remembered place to swim called "Wanamaker Lake." These places, because they have meaning to residents, Glassberg argues, must be considered when historians write local history and preservationists think about their strategies.	3
Chapter Four is rather different. It studies viewer responses to Ken Burns' documentary The Civil War, and examines how people understand media history within their own personal contexts. While there is some discussion of the way in which people understood The Civil War within the context of their own family histories and regional cultures, the focus is on how Burns' presentation was seen as entirely factual rather than an "interpretation." The methodology of basing viewer response on 444 letters to Burns, however, is problematic because it does not represent a large enough population to make generalizations upon. The chapter also seems out of place in a book that focuses on historic places. That said, Glassberg's study is essential reading for students of public history and those involved in historic preservation. His arguments are worthy of consideration.	4
Beth Tfiloh Dahan High School, Baltimore Daniel P. Kotzin

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