16 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The truth, August 31, 2003
By A Customer
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!!!
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An impressive anthropology of Colonial Williamsburg, August 2, 2010
This review is from: The New History in an Old Museum: Creating the Past at Colonial Williamsburg (Paperback)
This book provides an anthropology of a museum - - an important museum, Colonial Williamsburg (CW), which receives about a million visitors a year. The authors are interested in how CW produces its interpretive content. They studied the site at a time when the new social historians were trying to introduce a greater awareness of race and class divisions in colonial society into the CW program. These new social historians were resisted in part by traditionalists, especially the costumed hostesses, who focused on the colonial elite. More important, the pressures of business got in the way. CW needs to sell products, broaden its income base, and keep its visitors happy, and these pressures work against more critical social history.
Some of the story will be familiar political ground. CW was an elite project, funded by the Rockefellers. It appeals to upper-middle-class white tourists who like to buy "authentic" reproduction furniture and other items. Other themes in Handler and Gable's story may be more surprising. For example, they show how discourses about "facts" and "documentation" are used by white interpreters to avoid talking about racially sensitive issues such as miscegenation. They also show how a focus on material objects such as restored buildings and authentic furnishings leads to a bias against stories that are less well documented - - notably the story of Williamsburg's slaves.
Though this is not Handler and Gable's main concern, I must say that some of the museum practices they discuss are appalling. White guides work inside the homes, while African-American interpreters do the "Other Half" (slave) tours from outside. Apparently the two types of guides each make derogatory comments about what the other guides will or will not tell you. Costumed characters interpreting slaves do not enter the homes during regular hours, though of course historical slaves would have. Instead, they are passive stage hands ("the furniture would have been rearranged for tea"). Greater respect for the realities of 18th century Williamsburg really demands that the foundation change these practices by their own staff.
The book is not without its limitations. The authors are trained in Marxism, they believe that class conflict and racism are the key organizing principles of all social relations, and they see American culture as strongly marked by consumerism. If these are your premises, you'll see race, class, and consumerism everywhere - - and they do. An environmental historian or a conservative would see very different things.
They also enjoy pointing out that Colonial Williamsburg is a "corporation." Unfortunately, they use "corporation" less as a social scientific concept and more a (negative) value judgment. They never ask whether a non-profit corporation might behave differently in important ways than a for-profit corporation, for example.
Handler and Gable are pretty self-aware of their own Marxist leanings, less self-aware about their own views about race, consumer goods, and corporations. They are also good modern anthropologists in that they make themselves visible in the account, and they discuss when their informants disagree with their own interpretations of local culture.
I am sorry to say that Colonial Williamsburg's online bookstore does not sell this book. The organization would be a stronger one if their employees read it. It would be even better if some visitors read it before going there, to think more critically about what they are seeing and why.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Information: Yes. Unbiased parade: No., December 9, 2011
This review is from: The New History in an Old Museum: Creating the Past at Colonial Williamsburg (Paperback)
The authors clearly have an agenda in mind, and their writing reflects that. They call Williamsburg a "Republican Disneyland". This book is not valuable if you are looking for a friendly read about the pros and cons of Williamsburg as a museum. This piece is a classic work of public history, but not because it provides a stellar example of a balanced debate.
What it IS incredibly useful for is learning about the development of Williamsburg and the development of America's expectations for historic sites/museums over time. It shows Williamsburg from the point of view of visitors, CEOs, people who live and work around the area, costumed actors, waitresses, and everything in between. The authors were allowed unusual access to Williamsburg in and out, and they report many of the controversies that go on behind the scenes. Issues range from defining "authenticity" to digging up lands for building spas to balancing history and entertainment.
It is a sublime read for anyone interested in what goes on behind the scenes of Williamsburg and similar museums and history sites all over the country, and the sheer volume of factors that must be considered whenever any move is made at one of these places.
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