Table of Contents

List of Illustrations Preface   Introduction: History's Past Presence 1 The History Book Club Offers the Past as an u0022Image of Ourselvesu0022 2 Mythologizing History on Du Pont's Cavalcade of America 3 History, News, and You Are There 4 The Freedom Train's Narrow Gauge Iconography 5 Building a u0022National Shrineu0022 at the National Museum of American History Conclusion: Once and Future Truths   Notes Bibliography Index

About the Author

Erik Christiansen is assistant professor of history and public history coordinator at Rhode Island College.

Reviews

"Channeling the Past may focus mainly on corporations rewriting history to influence public opinion, but it also delves into attempts by various groups on the political left to bolster their message by invoking the past."--Minnesota History Magazine

"Christiansen has written an informative, well-researched, useful book that casts considerable light on how mid-century Americans encountered history outside the classroom."--HNN: History News Network

"This is an insightful analysis of the uses and misuses of history in an age of high anxiety and political polarization. It's a timely and intellectually nuanced work that will appeal to both scholars and serious general readers with an interest in Cold War intellectualism."--Library Journal

"This very accessible, fast-moving read examines revisionist movements from the Great Depression through the early stages of the Cold War."--Choice

"Postwar America was a surprisingly creative time for making U.S. history come alive and for disseminating the 'lessons' of that history to broad and diverse American publics. Erik Christiansen explains why this was so and, through meticulous research, reconstructs the rise and fall of five key public history initiatives. A probing, illuminating, and elegantly written work."--Gary Gerstle, Vanderbilt University

Christiansen (history, Rhode Island Coll.) here surveys how the political Right and Left used real events to construct a "citizen's history" that sought not only a popular consensus of America's past, but used that historical memory to gain legitimacy for-and to further-their political and economic agendas. In building his case, Christiansen skillfully tackles the DuPont Company's construction of "usable propaganda" in its sponsorship of the television series Cavalcade of America; academic historians' attempt to "diffuse applicable historical knowledge" with the History Book Club; CBS News's "leftist" You Are There series; the American Heritage Foundation's attempt to create pseudo-religious "iconography" with the Freedom Train of 1947-49; and the Smithsonian Institution's Museum of American History exhibits, which, like the other examples, eventually sacrificed historical validity to pecuniary and popular interests. VERDICT This is an insightful analysis of the uses and misuses of history in an age of high anxiety and political polarization. It's a timely and intellectually nuanced work that will appeal to both scholars and serious general readers with an interest in Cold War intellectualism. Fans of Jon Wiener's How We Forgot the Cold War should also consider it.-Brian Odom, Marshall Space & Flight Ctr. Archives, NASA, Huntsville, AL (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.