The wages of history : emotional labor on public history's front lines / Amy M. Tyson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Tyson, Amy M., author.

Series:

Public history in historical perspective.

Public history in historical perspective series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Historical reenactments--Psychological aspects--Minnesota--Fort Snelling.

Historical reenactments.

Historical reenactments--Psychological aspects--Case studies.

Historic sites--Interpretive programs--Psychological aspects--Minnesota--Fort Snelling.

Historic sites.

Historic sites--Interpretive programs--Psychological aspects--Case studies.

Public history--Minnesota--Fort Snelling.

Public history.

Acting--Psychological aspects--Case studies.

Acting.

Fort Snelling (Minn.)--History.

Fort Snelling (Minn.).

Genre:

Case studies.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xiv, 224 pages) : illustrations

Other Title:

Emotional labor on public history's front lines

Place of Publication:

Amherst, [Massachusetts] ; Boston, [Massachusetts] : University of Massachusetts Press, 2013.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Anyone who has encountered costumed workers at a living history museum may well have wondered what their jobs are like, churning butter or firing muskets while dressed in period clothing. In The Wages of History, Amy Tyson enters the world of the public history interpreters at Minnesota s Historic Fort Snelling to investigate how they understand their roles and experience their daily work. Drawing on archival research, personal interviews, and participant observation, she reframes the current discourse on history museums by analyzing interpreters as laborers within the larger service and knowledge economies. Although many who are drawn to such work initially see it as a privilege an opportunity to connect with the public in meaningful ways through the medium of history the realities of the job almost inevitably alter that view. Not only do interpreters make considerable sacrifices, both emotional and financial, in order to pursue their work, but their sense of special status can lead them to avoid confronting troubling conditions on the job, at times fueling tensions in the workplace. This case study also offers insights many drawn from the author s seven years of working as an interpreter at Fort Snelling into the way gendered roles and behaviors from the past play out among the workers, the importance of creative autonomy to historical interpreters, and the ways those on public history s front lines both resist and embrace the site s more difficult and painful histories relating to slavery and American Indian genocide-- Provided by Publisher.

Contents:

Introduction: Customer Service Superstars

PART I. Public History's Emotional Proletariat (1960-1996). Performing a Public Service: From Historic Site to Work Site (1960-1985)

"Our Seat at the Table": Interpreter Agency and Consent (1985-1996)

PART II. Historic Fort Snelling's Front Line (1996-2006). The Wages of Living History: Rewards and Costs of Emotional Investment

Pursuing Authenticity: Creative Autonomy and Workplace Games

Interpreting Painful Histories: Emotional Comfort and Connecting

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9781613762684

1613762682

OCLC:

867739495

Publisher Number:

heb40444 hdl