Why We Are Placeless

The reasons that historians give to explain American’s disconnectedness from community and history are, for the most part, linked to the short life and fast growth of the country.  The short span within which he have been a nation means that there is nothing truly old here, as there is in the old world, and the nation was started with a clear goal of breaking with all that history any way.  The speed of our growth as a nation, from westward expansion of the pioneers and the industrial boom crossing into the 20^th Century, to the ever-pervasive and instantly gratifying nature of modern communication we have always been too busy moving on to the next great thing to stop and smell the roses of our histories.  Being a nation of transients, constantly being added to through immigration, does not aid in the building of a national history either, as we rarely put roots down long enough to truly build a community that represents us all and without such roots, it is also difficult to maintain a connection to history.

David Glassberg, in his article “Place and Placelessness in American History” does, to a point, agree with this assessment, but he also recognizes that we, as public historians can do something about this, in the way we study, discuss and write about the nation’s historical connections to place.  Regardless of how we connect to the larger historical picture, including nationally and regionally important sites, Glassberg asserts, rightly, that we all still associate personal histories, and life events to places that may not be “historical” sites, but are of great importance to our personal sense of place, and therefore history.  It is in the disconnect between our nation's lack of historical foundation and our personal desire/need for historic connection that we can begin to see how Disney’s America came up against such tough resistance.  We are left with so few physical remnants of the history of the nation, but we yearn to connect to the past, so, when both the places and the transmission of the story of that past came under threat there was a great deal of emotion to mobilize against Disney.