- 264 pages
- English
- PDF
- Available on iOS & Android
eBook - PDF
About this book
After the turmoil of the Great Depression and World War II, Americans looked to the nation's more distant past for lessons to inform its uncertain future. By applying recent and emerging techniques in mass communicationâincluding radio and television programs and commercial book clubsâAmerican elites working in media, commerce, and government used history to confer authority on their respective messages.
With insight and wit, Erik Christiansen uncovers in Channeling the Past the ways that powerful corporations rewrote history to strengthen the postwar corporate state, while progressives, communists, and other leftists vied to make their own versions of the past more popular. Christiansen looks closely at several notable initiativesâCBS's flashback You Are There program; the Smithsonian Museum of American History, constructed in the late 1950s; the Cavalcade of America program sponsored by the Du Pont Company; the History Book Club; and the Freedom Train, a museum on rails that traveled the country from 1947 to 1949 exhibiting historic documents and flags, including original copies of the U.S. Constitution and the Magna Carta.
It is often said that history is written by the victors, but Christiansen offers a more nuanced perspective: history is constantly remade to suit the objectives of those with the resources to do it. He provides dramatic evidence of sophisticated calculations that influenced both public opinion and historical memory, and shows that Americans' relationships with the past changed as a result.
With insight and wit, Erik Christiansen uncovers in Channeling the Past the ways that powerful corporations rewrote history to strengthen the postwar corporate state, while progressives, communists, and other leftists vied to make their own versions of the past more popular. Christiansen looks closely at several notable initiativesâCBS's flashback You Are There program; the Smithsonian Museum of American History, constructed in the late 1950s; the Cavalcade of America program sponsored by the Du Pont Company; the History Book Club; and the Freedom Train, a museum on rails that traveled the country from 1947 to 1949 exhibiting historic documents and flags, including original copies of the U.S. Constitution and the Magna Carta.
It is often said that history is written by the victors, but Christiansen offers a more nuanced perspective: history is constantly remade to suit the objectives of those with the resources to do it. He provides dramatic evidence of sophisticated calculations that influenced both public opinion and historical memory, and shows that Americans' relationships with the past changed as a result.
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Yes, you can access Channeling the Past by Erik Christiansen in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in History & North American History. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.
Information
Table of contents
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Preface
- Introduction: Historyâs Past Presence
- 1. The History Book Club Offers the Past as an âImage of Ourselvesâ
- 2. Mythologizing History on Du Pontâs Cavalcade of America
- 3. History, News, and You Are There
- 4. The Freedom Trainâs Narrow-Gauge Iconography
- 5. Building a âNational Shrineâ at the National Museum of American History
- Conclusion: Once and Future Truths
- Abbreviations
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index