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Author Rymsza-Pawlowska, M. J., author.

Title History comes alive : public history and popular culture in the 1970s / M.J. Rymsza-Pawlowska
Published Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina Press, [2017]

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Description 1 online resource (xiii, 241 pages) : illustrations
Series Studies in United States culture
Studies in United States culture.
Contents Past as present : history on television from the 1950s to the 1970s -- The commemoration revolution : planning the federal bicentennial -- Preservation is people : saving and collecting as democratic practice -- The spaces of history : museums, interactivity, and immersion -- Cultural logics of reenactment : embodied engagement with the American past -- History comes alive : activism, identification, and the American archive
Summary During the 1976 Bicentennial celebration, millions of Americans engaged with the past in brand-new ways. They became absorbed by historical miniseries like Roots, visited museums with new exhibits that immersed them in the past, propelled works of historical fiction onto the bestseller list, and participated in living history events across the nation. While many of these activities were sparked by the Bicentennial, M.J. Rymsza-Pawlowska shows that, in fact, they were symptomatic of a fundamental shift in Americans' relationship to history during the 1960s and 1970s. For the majority of the twentieth century, Americans thought of the past as foundational to, but separate from, the present, and they learned and thought about history in informational terms. But Rymsza-Pawlowska argues that the popular culture of the 1970s reflected an emerging desire to engage and enact the past on a more emotional level: to consider the feelings and motivations of historic individuals and, most importantly, to use this in reevaluating both the past and the present. This thought-provoking book charts the era's shifting feeling for history, and explores how it serves as a foundation for the experience and practice of history making today. -- Provided by publisher
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes Online resource; title from PDF title page (ProQuest Ebook Central, viewed July 19, 2019)
Subject History in mass media.
Nineteen seventies.
Historical reenactments -- Psychological aspects
HISTORY -- United States -- State & Local -- General.
Historiography
History in mass media
Nineteen seventies
Public opinion
SUBJECT United States -- History -- Historiography
United States -- History -- Public opinion
United States -- History. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85140130
Subject United States
Genre/Form History
Form Electronic book
ISBN 9781469633879
1469633876
9781469633886
1469633884