A New Avenue for the Locavores
When are locavores going to start getting interested in local history?
Maybe local history isn't sexy enough. Maybe it doesn't have the same down-home, back-to-the-earth appeal as growing cabbages in asphalt lots. History isn't sexy, right? History is inherently boring.
There are a lot of boring parts of history, sure. But take a look at the popular history programs on PBS that have taken off in the last few years: History Detectives, Time Team America (both from Oregon Public Broadcasting, because the Pacific Northwest is where the sexy educated people are, right?) Even Antiques Roadshow has acquired a kind of nerd chic -- last night when I tuned in I saw Kevin Bacon telling me how excited he got when he watched old grandmas learn their tchotchkes were worth big bucks.
There will always be those who believe that any kind of popularization of a scholarly subject -- like history -- is just "pandering to the public." I'm well used to the anti-pandering elitism because apparently there are still librarians who want to get rid of computers and DVDs.
Because I'm such a snob, I should also be against pandering to the public. But to steal a thought from Neil Gaiman, anything that gets you interested in history is a good thing, and anything that serves as a barrier between you and history is a bad thing. Including the idea that history is boring, stuffy, stodgy, and suitable only for people wearing thick glasses and white gloves.
Which parts of history get you salivating, and why? Or what made you hate history altogether?
Maybe local history isn't sexy enough. Maybe it doesn't have the same down-home, back-to-the-earth appeal as growing cabbages in asphalt lots. History isn't sexy, right? History is inherently boring.
There are a lot of boring parts of history, sure. But take a look at the popular history programs on PBS that have taken off in the last few years: History Detectives, Time Team America (both from Oregon Public Broadcasting, because the Pacific Northwest is where the sexy educated people are, right?) Even Antiques Roadshow has acquired a kind of nerd chic -- last night when I tuned in I saw Kevin Bacon telling me how excited he got when he watched old grandmas learn their tchotchkes were worth big bucks.
There will always be those who believe that any kind of popularization of a scholarly subject -- like history -- is just "pandering to the public." I'm well used to the anti-pandering elitism because apparently there are still librarians who want to get rid of computers and DVDs.
Because I'm such a snob, I should also be against pandering to the public. But to steal a thought from Neil Gaiman, anything that gets you interested in history is a good thing, and anything that serves as a barrier between you and history is a bad thing. Including the idea that history is boring, stuffy, stodgy, and suitable only for people wearing thick glasses and white gloves.
Which parts of history get you salivating, and why? Or what made you hate history altogether?
posted by Christine Borne at 8:02 AM
1 Comments:
Troubles with cable channel history programs include 1) too much emphasis on WWII and Hitler, 2) too much dramatization and re-inactments and 3) too much hyped-up presentation, such as including a constant din of suspenseful background music and sound effects to make things sound more interesting than they are. Then there are the programs that aren't even vaguely history.
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