Exploring Public History: The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

From its opening and dedication in 1993, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum has opened its doors to over 36 million visitors from all over the world. I have visited the museum five times now, and I can personally testify the museum's popularity (the crowds were always so dense!). More importantly, I find the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum to be one of the best museums in the world, for it not only explores the past, but also aids visitors in contemplating what the Holocaust means for the present. 

Upon entering the museum, the visitors are handed an ID card with the name and life summary of someone who lived during the Holocaust. Visitors are encouraged to read various entries on their ID card at various checkpoints throughout the museum. Soon after receiving their ID cards, visitors enter an elevator with a small tv screen inside which plays a short clip of US soldiers describing their thoughts upon first encountering the concentration camps across Europe. "We couldn't imagine what we found....we just...we've never seen anything like it" as a picture of a pile corpses flashes across the screen. This solemnity dominates the visitors' experiences for the remainder of their time at the museum; it gently yet firmly urges them forward into deeper understanding of this great tragedy.

 The museum begins with an overview of the Nazi Party's rise to power, and how antisemitism took root in Germany and other parts of Europe. The museum guides the visitors to examine how the Nazi party utilized propaganda, education, religion, politics, nationalism, and violence to convince the German people (and much of Europe) to participate, ignore, or be somewhat complicit in implementing the horrors of the Holocaust. The Museum covers everything imaginable pertaining to the holocaust from how the Nazi party rose to power to how everyday German citizens could possibly allow their government enact systematic genocide. 

What is most remarkable about this museum is that it is not content to simply report facts, it discerns how those facts impact and illuminate the present and future. 

Specifically, the museum has exhibits about preventing genocide and how to address contemporary genocidal movements happening now in places like Syria and Darfur. The museum does a fantastic job at providing a riveting and educational public history experience, and I hope I can make my sixth visit soon enough.

Public History and Mike Wallace's Reflections

In the previous post about why I decided to study history in college, I talked about how everything is illuminated by the light of the past. I believe this notion speaks to many historians, but I believe this notion also speaks to non-historians. In at least some vague sense, we all know that everything is illuminated by the light of the past regardless of how closely we study history. The popularity of gossip shows testify to this as do, unsurprisingly, museums.

Museums are concentrated efforts to preserve and explore the past in a public setting. They also exist to educate and entertain others about the past. Mike Wallace in Mickey Mouse History explores the history of museums in America, and he elucidates how developments in public history reflect changes in American society. 

For instance, museums functioned as unifying cultural sites for the fledgling American government on the eve of the Civil War.

"It will be good for our citizens in these days when we hear the sound of disunion reiterated from every part of the country...to chasten their minds by reviewing the history of our revolutionary struggle." - Governor Hamilton Fish on the preservation of George Washington's revolutionary head quarters in 1850.

 Of course, these efforts proved ineffective seeing as the civil war broke out, but the museums/cultural shrines reflect the government's desire for strong unity among the states. Of course, the focus of the museums have changed over the years, and museums differ in their representations of history depending upon the roots of the museum. For instance, local efforts in New York City lead to the creation of museums focusing on Latino, Asian, and African history. This reflects how Americans are coming to understand themselves as not strictly American, but rather as Asian/African/Latino etc American. This also demonstrates how minority groups within America develop differently from the majority group. Furthermore, the rise of such minority-focused museums reflect how Americans are becoming more understanding of the complexities of American society. American history is not simply the history of presidents and generals, but also of common men, women, members of the LGBT+ community, and immigrant people.

Signs of progress!

Though there has been much progress in museums, museums often struggle to fully encompass the complexity of what they represent. For instance, in Colonial Williamsburg,  they "set the story of the black slaves alongside the story of the planters. What they were less willing to tackle were the relations between those classes" (23). A history of a colonial plantation exempting the relations between various groups fails to capture the complexity of the time, but representation of various groups does show progress from the original strict representation of only "great white men."

American public history does show great signs of progress that give me great hope, but I am confident in saying that American public history has a long way to go, as do all historians. So far, Wallace's book is proving to be a great, enlightening read, and I'll be sure to keep everyone posted on my thoughts.

The Past is the Past, and I Study the Past

Once when I was in high school, I was studying history with a friend when he boldly stands up and announces that history is stupid. He begins declaring with all the angst of a lazy pubescent teenager that we shouldn't have to study history, and how it doesn't really affect our future. After all, he wanted to be an accountant, not a historian. I however found his words revolting yet paralyzing. I could not find the words to defend history, but I did find my passion for history that day.

Later that year, I had the pleasure of taking a Catholic Moral Foundations class where we watched the movie Everything is Illuminated. It is a film about an American Jew who goes to Ukraine to discover what happened to his ancestors during the Holocaust. The film was surprisingly historical, but one line sticks with me:

"I have reflected many times upon our rigid search. It has shown me that everything is illuminated in the light of the past. It is always along the side of us, on the inside, looking out. Like you say, inside out. Jonathan, in this way, I will always be along the side of your life. And you will always be along the side of mine."

If you have the opportunity to see it, do it!

Upon hearing these words, I knew why I love history. Everything is illuminated by the light of the past! By its light, the present makes sense, and with historical interpretation, I can discern what the past can teach us today. Hence the name of this blog, The Illuminated Lighthouse.

Come on! Those flowers! Check out this movie.

LeFeber's Insight

In the previous post, I explored how humans are dynamic, and consequently, human history is dynamic. With this in mind, it makes sense how historians can examine the same event and come to completely different conclusions.

Historian Walter LaFeber explores this phenomenon by investigating the realist and revisionist views of the open-door policy in Liberty and Power: U.S. Diplomatic History, 1750-1945.

First up, the realist. The “realist” school of thought posits that “to survive in the modern world, Americans has to understand the realities of power (especially military power) and understand as well that the United States was not all that different from other nations” (377). Realist believe things go badly for American officials when they get caught up in the “’legalism and moralism’” of their times (377). He cites realist exemplar George F. Kennan’s American Diplomacy saying that realist would see the American support for an open-door policy in Asia as British manipulation of Americans. Kennan and other realist assert that American officials simply supported the policy because they believed it was the moral or most fair thing to do, even though it was most beneficial for Great Britain. As one can see, realism is marked by emphasis on “great man” history and how great individuals impacted the course of American development.

Conversely, the “revisionist” school of thought as seen in William Appleman Williams’s The Tragedy of American Diplomacy sees this same event as engineered by American leaders who “fully understood, and were determined to expand , their nation’s economic interest” (378). Instead of emphasizing military power, revisionist Williams emphasizes economic concern as the motivator for American policy.

 

Revisionist!

As you can see, both realist and revisionist historians examine the same events, yet they come to drastically different conclusions. This shows how a historian’s time, interests, and school of thought can affect how one views history. LaFeber’s valuable insight into history is a useful notion for any historian to remember, for it allows one to explore the dynamic nature of history. Which I am convinced is of paramount importance.

The Dynamic John Lewis Gaddis on the Ecological Approach to History

Before diving into my thoughts on the first four chapters of John Lewis Gaddis’s The Landscape of History, a forward seems appropriate.

Growing up in a Catholic household, I have been steeped in myth and fairytales from cradle to college. However, as teenagers often do, I grew to be suspicious of myths. I favored hard science and empirically verifiable truths over myths, but then I learned that myths do not aim to communicate truths in the same way a science theory does. Myths exist to communicate truths about the human condition. For instance, one lesson the myth of Genesis communicates is how the world was created as an intentional act of love; the “seven days” are simply artistic flare. 

Doesn't have to be this way, does it?

This phenomenon is exactly what author C.S. Lewis references when he says, “Some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again.” Fairytales (and here I use fairytales and myths interchangeably) seek to communicate truths about the human condition. With maturity, I find it easier to ascertain the truth to be found in myth. I was reminded of this when I was reading J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings when the character Gandalf says, “Hobbits really are amazing creatures. You can learn all there is to know about their ways in a month, and yet after a hundred years they can still surprise you.” Substitute hobbits with humans, and you arrive at a simple yet important truth— humans are dynamic.

The ever-wise Gandalf 

With this simple truth in mind, one part of Gaddis’s work stood out to me— the ecological approach to human affairs/history. Gaddis defines the ecological approach to human affairs as the study of human affairs that “values the specification of simple components… [and] considers how components interact to become systems whose nature can’t be defined merely by calculating the sum of their parts” (55). In other words, the ecological approach identifies individual components of a system, and goes a step farther in identifying how the components interact to create the system. This approach allows many variables to exist without compromising lucidity. Gaddis posits that the ecological approach should be applied to history. To understand how this approach works in history, think of how the American Revolution started. A historian using the ecological approach would identify the various causes of the American revolution, (economic distress, geographic distance, lack of American representation in Parliament, etc) and show how these possibly innumerable causes work together to culminate into the start of the American Revolution.

You weren't expecting this, were you? Ahhh, human dynamism.

What is most remarkable about Gaddis’s ecological approach is how it accounts for humanity’s dynamism. For this reason, I think Gaddis is really onto something grand. I look forward to reading the rest of his book.

Blog Reviews

I chose Edwardian Promenade and Stoneman’s Corner for my blog reviews. They are similar in many regards, but they offer the reader very different experiences.

Edwardian Promenade (Click here for access)

Edwardian Promenade is a well-established blog started in 2007 by Evangeline Holland. Details about Holland are rather scarce, but she is primarily a historical fiction writer who has written a few non-fiction historical book as well a historical research guide. As for her education and academic credits, none could be found, but this does not mean she is without such credits. After all, her blog is impressive if for no other reason than the enormity of her sources, which number well over 100 sources, and scope of the blog post’s topics. As one might guess, the unifying topic for her blog is Edwardian English history which includes everything from African-American, amusements, domestic service, fashion, food, great war, men, new york city, royalty, social season, and women’s history. However, Holland also writes about Gilded Age America and Belle Époque France in this blog. Her sources range from encyclopedias and newpapers from Edwardian England to cook books and Wikipedia, and her blog posts reflect her use of sources. Meaning, each post is enlightening, exciting, and innovative. Holland’s blog is an ideal blog to follow for those interested in some casual historical research but also for more serious historians looking for something lighter. All in all, I had a very satisfying experience with this blog.

Stoneman’s Corner (Click here for access)

Stoneman’s Corner is a more stoic, bare-bones style blog authored by historian, editor, and teacher Mark R. Stoneman. In contrast to Holland, Stoneman boldly lists his credentials from his education to his professional experience. He obtained his undergraduate history degree from Darthmouth College, and then he went on to obtain his masters degree in Modern European History at Universität Augsburg, and his PhD in Modern European History at Georgetown University. His blog consists mostly of military history book reviews, his work in the classroom as a graduate school teacher, and his experience as being an editor for various history books. Though Stoneman does not cast as wide a net as Holland, Stoneman does seem to dive a bit deeper into history in that he explores historiography. Facts are not enough from Stoneman, so he explores how one’s perspective is important in studying history in many of his posts. His sources are almost entirely academic, and this reflects his deep academic roots. Stoneman’s blog will not appeal to as many as Holland, but it offers reader a valuable, more academic experience without being as heavy as a book. All in all, I had a good albeit dry experience with this blog.