Presence of the Past

Christine Larsen
History 301: Individual, Community, and Societal Perspective
December 8, 2014

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Presence of the Past

The Presence of the Past, Popular Uses of History in American Life by Roy
Rosenzweig and David Thelen, is a research culmination of 1,500 Americans and their responses
to a survey. This survey sought to find the ways in which Americans use history in their
everyday lives. The essay itself displays the participants personal responses to their experiences
in high school history classes. The accounts were described as both great experiences and bad.
This led to the conclusion that led the researchers to an understanding for why history is seen as
dead and gone, irrelevant, beyond any use in the present. 1 The conclusion for the opposition or
the people with positive experiences was presented as: they could explore the past on their
own.2 The researchers began their report with their hypothesis and the problems with the past
findings that led them to their new hypothesis. Through the survey the researchers believed that
it would allow for them to listen to people as they used the past in their daily lives. 3 Based from
the surveys and the 1,500 participants results, history teachers were ranked at a 6.6 on a 10 point
scale, slightly higher than every other category such as books (6.4/10), television (5.0/10), and
studying history in class (5.7/10).4 Based off of the five surveys I presented to my family
members, high school history teachers were ranked on average a 6/10 for the various age ranges.
Their responses mimicked the responses found in the report. In comparison to television or
movies, history in high school or through relatives resulted in a more personal feeling and
1 Roy Rosensweig and David Thelen, The Presence of the Past, Popular Uses of
History in American Life (1989).
2 Ibid
3 Ibid
4 Ibid

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connection to what occurred. My parents both had examples that were similar to the individuals
with positive experiences mentioning that their teachers were all very involved and tried to make
the students feel like they were experiencing the past through their stories. My cousins and
younger brother within the 24 and younger age range had an opposite experience in high school.
Similar to the report, they mentioned that their lessons were extremely one-sided and their
teachers took no interest in hearing of the students opinions. All five of my participants went to
high school in Southern California so the time range may have played a role in their opposite
results.
From my personal surveys, of the five, one was under the age of twenty, two were in the
age group 21-30, and two were 41-50. For all three ages that I surveyed, I compared their
answers to the statistics focusing on how trustworthy they believe the information about the past
is and how connected they felt to the past. For the individual who was under the age of twenty,
he hardly related to the statistics of the previous semester. In comparison, he trusted the
conversations he has had with people who were there (8/10) and trusted nonfiction books (8/10).
He felt connected to the past when visiting a museum or historic site. For the two people who
were 21-30, one did not relate at all and the other related with two areas. He trusted: museums
(8/10) and conversations with someone who was there (8/10). Finally, the two individuals who
were 41-50 related the most to the statistics. They trusted: museums (8/10), conversations with
someone who was there (8/10), college history teachers (8/10), and nonfiction books (7/10).
They were connected to the past when: celebrating holidays (8/10), reading a book about the past
(8/10), and watching a movie or television program about the past (7/10).
This information is extremely useful to children, families, and teachers because it allows
for each individual to reflect on their use of history and how important it has been in their lives.

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For a teacher who is giving a history lesson, (or relating any other subject to a historical
background) they will be able to take this survey and enhance the trustworthiness of photos,
books, movies, etc. by discussing the information provided in a discussion. If a source is found
to be extremely faulty then that teaches the students how to look at a piece of information and be
able to dissect it to find if it should be trusted. A lesson that could be created from this would be
to take the class statistics for the semester and present the overall/ average findings. Then,
students can look at that information and discuss the differences. They will also be able to look
at the age differences and relate it to the time period and speculate on why exactly the individuals
answered the way they did.