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Mike Wallace, Mickey Mouse History and Other Essays on American Memory (Philadelphia: Temple UP, 1996), xiv+ 318pp., $54.95 (cloth), $18.95 (paper).
In recent years, important debates over the role of history in American society have raged outside of academia in the realm of public history. Indeed most Americans learn about the past through traditional public history venues such as museums and historic districts, or entertainment-based cultural sites such as theme parks and the mass media. Mickey Mouse History is an insightful collection of essays written over the last fifteen years by historian Mike Wallace on diverse aspects of public history. Wallace's overarching attention to which narratives dominate our public conception of history, which ones are ignored, and why, provides an essential critical analysis of the role of history in contemporary culture.
The essays in Mickey Mouse History are grouped into four sections. Section I looks at the evolution and present status of the history museum. Wallace shows how the versions of the past that have emerged in public discourse represent the class-based cultural concerns of their creators. Institutions such as Colonial Williamsburg, founded by millionaire John...