A book that some might find helpful in understanding the reasons for the
invention of unlikely historical explanations is Roy Rosenzweig and David
Whelan's _The Presence of the Past_.  (I don't have the book handy -- hope I
have the names right.)  The authors studied the attitudes and values of
people who are interested in history, go to historical museums, have
history-related avocations and hobbies, etc.  (The kind of people who become
docents.)

I was interested in the book because, while a student of American art and
architecture, I often went back home (to rural Virginia) and was struck by
how differently local preservationists and architecture-lovers approached
the past compared to what I was experiencing in grad school.  They sought
order, labels, connections, a coherent story -- we were impatient with
labels, suspicious of neat narratives, anecdotes, and smooth-it-over
explanations.  I was startled by some of the dubious stories the locals had
created and flummoxed by the cool reception my alternate stories received,
until I realized that there was only a partial overlap between their
conception of history and mine.

I was not dealing with fools down there, not by a long shot.  Maybe a better
understanding of why people are interested in the past at all would help
museum educators bridge the gap between an academic and a popular view of
the past.  I doubt that's all there is to it -- some people will invent
stories simply to be argumentative or to get attention -- but I liked
_Presence of the Past_ because it spoke to the sort of problem this thread
has addressed.

I have also been present when people with advanced degrees hooted over the
ridiculous stories told by docents at places like Jefferson's capitol
building in Richmond.  Maybe if the professionals had a better understanding
of *why* the docents felt the need to embroider, we could give them the sort
of training that would make it less likely for them to incorporate
straight-out falsehoods in their tours.

I responded in a rather flip way to this thread some time back ("if you want
competence, pay for it"), but that has something to do with the fact that
I've been looking for work.  Sorry.

Martha Hagood
Baltimore

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