Glassberg attributes the increase in historical activities to several factors. One of which is the increased economic and social power of women and minority groups that have previously marginalized and excluded from participating in the dominant historical narrative. History, according to Glassberg has been used to attract tourists with its aura and allure. Aspects of this view of history as a agent of attraction can be seen throughout the topics that I will discuss later in this essay. Glassberg also makes a point to discuss how technology, especially the Internet, will help shape a person's sense of belonging and identity in a rapidly changing, moving world.
Technology does create a sense of belonging-- be it loyalty to a certain search engine (Google vs. Yahoo! vs. Alta Vista vs. Bing vs. Ask Jeeves, etc.) to a favorite website, high school, college, and so on. Yet technology also has another, more obvious value in today's society-- accessibility. As the pro-technology group in class mentioned on Tuesday, it is frustrating and highly inconvenient both personally and financially to have to physically access a journal article. Such accessibility to information can also be applied to public history.Technology does allow for people to engage in ways that are less traditional, perhaps, but no less meaningful. For the physically disabled or for those with a different way of experiencing . Technology can allow for greater engagement with history beyond looking at an object or reading the text description. The entertainment factor of technology cannot be ignored either.
Because of technology's general entertainment value, it is not surprising that the aura of that which is historic in nature has settled upon the game world. In more modern times, the popular video game "Assassin's Creed" (which people have explained to me is set in various historical periods) is an example of the fascination with the mystique of history, even as a backdrop. Going back to many of our younger years, many of us remember playing or remember other people playing/talking about the computer game "Oregon Trail" or "Where in the World/Time is Carmen San Diego?" While not academic in the strictest sense, I feel that such games help orient and acclimate young people to be interested in history. To refer back to the concept of a sense of place (and to plug for geography in schools), it is easier for someone to identify and connect with a concept if they understand where it happened. This is true in the classroom. Material came more easily when I had an "ah ha" moment at realizing I knew the location of Canton on a map; knowledge offered a relationship to a place and thus fostered a greater affinity with the information--not as personal as sense of place but relatable. I can tie this to personal experience trying to figure out the locations where things occurred in Dayton for my internship, a greater connection to history is felt by understanding place. While "Where in the World is Carmen San Diego" might only apply to place, "Oregon Trail" offers a greater understanding about place in time. Those who played the game could at least have a glimpse what aspects of what western expansion was like for those who made the trip. They get a glimpse of what real frustration was like when half their party dies of typhoid (this is said with some degree of sarcasm.) Yet despite the little vignettes that these games present in a rather simplified, sanitized version for public consumption, aspects still stick with people and this fact should not be overlooked nor belittled.
I do not necessarily think that technology alone can be credited with a surge of interest in experiencing the historic. I will credit the book for propagating an interest to at least some degree, take Jane Austen for example. There are many who love her books and more who are utterly infatuated by the film adaptions. While most of this interest likely stems from pretty faces, idealized romances, and fancy balls, at least some aspects of it are historical. Even the enchantment with Colin Firth behaving in an extremely genteel manner embodies some sort of fascination with historical etiquette, although like the code of chivalry, frequently such manners were more honored in the breech than in the observers. Whatever the exact reason for the interest, a love of all things Austen still makes people experience and learn about history, be it biography, social history, cultural history, or whatever esoteric subdivision which satisfies their need. Austen was not only writing to entertain but made many very poignant observations about Regency social customs. For films with accurate sets and costuming, people get to observe what life was like for some, in a format, if not a little more, sanitized than a house museum. Other films such as Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, Schniderler's List, the popular Pirates of the Carribbean set (which has historical undertones), the HBO miniseries John Adams (based off of David McCoullugh's book), Showtime's The Borgias, . While some of these movies/television shows represent the glitz and the novelty of historical backdrop, the fact that the novelty itself is of interest to people is telling. People are interested in history, even if for the visual appeal, the foreign, the "other" alone.
Perhaps this is part of the reason has become so engrossing due to technology in a way. History needs to be engaging and inclusive. Academia serves academia's own ends of higher education, greater thought, greater analysis, and greater depth; that is the luxury of its ivory tower. History loses to science and math because they are simply more profitable and the results of each more immediately useful. The American public, in all of its general pragmatism, values that which the benefits of which can be seen the quickest. So if history as we have traditionally conceived of it is to survive, it will survive as it has for the later part of the 20th century, as an underfunded School of Arts and Sciences department. The efforts of those in the field perhaps enlightening the few that bother to do the work in the odd, esoteric little Wonderland that is academic history, perhaps contributing nothing noticeable to those on the other side of the looking glass. For the public however, historical tidbits and "pretty" novelties will always be of greatest interest. The nuances and complexities, will as always, be discarded for consumption of the relatable. However, as Glassberg notes, as sense of place is about experiencing common humanity, so too is experiencing history in a way. For every river successfully forded and every long, longing glance, there is material there for someone to relate to, be it the sense of success or the thrill of loving someone, and technology will be there, helping pave the way for the human experience, vicariously or otherwise.
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