1 August 2010 It’s only history; how accurate does it have to be?

1 August 2010 It’s only history; how accurate does it have to be?


Why read the book when I can watch the movie?

"Tea party" activists drawn to Williamsburg and its portrayal of Founding Fathers

Amy Gardner

Washington Post Staff Writer

Sunday, August 1, 2010

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/31/AR2010073103051.html

There is an unexpected influx of Tea Party mob members at the historic living museum Colonial Williamsburg.

While I applaud the effort to learn more about the history of this nation, I don’t believe that Colonial Williamsburg is the best source of political history pertaining to the United States. Nor do I believe that asking questions of actors who are hired to portray historical persons is the most reliable source of information concerning the political thoughts and actions of these persons or the support characters who populate the museum.

The American Revolution and events leading to it are very well documented. The political stances of those who fomented and managed the uprising and subsequent nation building are equally well documented. Those thoughts written by the founders have been well preserved and are available via libraries and via internet sources in word for word reliability. But it takes time and energy to read old documents and to figure out what the writers had in mind by studying the culture and technologic levels of the infant nation. Far easier to visit a historical museum who’s actors are provided with known source material to allow them to interact with the visitors; and to imagine that appropriating the words of an actor is the intellectual equivalent of actually studying the time, place, and people by means of books and letters preserved for exactly that purpose.

Like too much in today’s world, the easy answer/sound byte is sought after by those all too willing to accept it as actual source material. It’s easy to believe that an actor, trained to behave as an 18th century person and allowed to respond to questions by staying in a narrow character and offering what he/she hopes is an accurate response, will provide a valid answer to mob members hoping to find validation for the sound bytes and buzz phrases they hear repeated endlessly at Tea Party mob gatherings. It is also intellectually lazy and among the poorest of research methods. We might as well allow them to claim that historical novels carry equal weight with preserved archival documents.

The entire article is worth reading. I’m a fan of such “living” museums. There are lots of things to be learned in them about daily life in their particular time period. But they are decidedly not intended to replace scholarship. They are not going to provide the answers that the Tea Party mobs would like most to hear. Actors at Colonial Williamsburg will not tell right wing reactionaries and religious militias that it is time for them to launch armed uprisings. On the contrary, it appears as if the actor portraying General Washington provided a series of answers guaranteed to dumbfound the average Tea Party mob member.

Huzzah!

“Sometimes, the activists appear surprised when the Founding Fathers don't always provide the "give 'em hell" response they seem to be looking for.

When a tourist asked George Washington a question about what should be done to those colonists who remain loyal to the tyrannical British king, Washington interjected: "I hope that we're all loyal, sir" -- a reminder that Washington, far from being an early agitator against the throne, was among those who sought to avoid revolution until the very end.

When another audience member asked the general to reflect on the role of prayer and religion in politics, he said: "Prayers, sir, are a man's private concern. They are not a matter of public interest. And nor should they be. There is nothing so personal as a man's relationship with his creator."

And when another asked whether the Boston Tea Party had helped rally the patriots, Washington disagreed with force: The tea party "should never have occurred," he said. "It's hurt our cause, sir."