In a message dated 8/12/2006 12:54:47 PM Eastern Standard Time, 
[log in to unmask] writes:
"If any of you on the List had to address your neighbors at a community 
center, assuming they are a relatively diverse rather than monolithic group, 
economically, professionally, and 
politically, how would you pitch an appeal on behalf of NARA?  Or more 
broadly, persuade them that history matters?"

I should have made it clear that when I wrote "that history matters," I meant 
history in its broadest sense.  Candidly, I think only a small percentage of 
the public is interested in political or policy history as reflected in 
government documents.  This really gets problematic in looking retrospectively at 
new disclosures in records of past decisions that profoundly affected people's 
lives.  Despite the fact that as a college student, I once was part of Nixon's 
"Silent Majority," I'm fascinated by archival disclosures about the modern 
presidency.  But I recognize that if they were affected by certain events, such 
as the Vietnam War, some members of the public may not want to examine too 
closely the decisions that once put them in harm's way when they were "soldiers 
once, and young" (the title of a book by Lt. Gen. Hal Moore, also made into a 
movie of similar title which I remember going to see with my sis around 2001 or 
2002).  On the other hand, others in that position do show an interest in 
delving into records that show what went on above their pay grades.  And triggered 
events that affected so many lives, including theirs.  

There's no way to guess who will react which way.  Whether you're a veteran 
or not, I'm interested in hearing from those on the List about what they 
generally think is the most effective pitch on behalf of NARA. What do you think 
works best?  What do you think might turn off those we need to appeal to?  As an 
aside, to the extent they turn to either, I have a sense that military 
veterans are more likely to choose records management over archives as a profession, 
but I could be wrong.  After all, my favorite boss at NARA, Fred Graboske, the 
Nixon tapes supervisor, served in Vietnam.  He was in the Big Red One.  We 
walked over to the nearby monument to the First Infantry Division when we 
visited the White House complex on business, back in the old days.

But, I'm starting to ramble further and further away from the point of who is 
interested in archives and who is not, sorry.  Back to the issue at hand.  
The biggest users of archives are historians and genealogists.  Except for what 
they read in newspapers, many members of the public never encounter historians 
after they leave college.  What do they see in newspapers?  Sometimes it is 
stories about a group of historians who are protesting against some current 
governmental policy or action.  Or accounts of the controversy over the Academic 
Bill of Rights.  Sometimes they see less controversial stories, perhaps about 
the activities of local historians or about popular historians such as David 
McCullough.  

All in all, I'm not sure historians have much awareness of how they come 
across in the press.  Some of their activities actually may harm NARA in the 
public's eyes.  I think we need to reach out to them, but some historians whom I've 
seen speak up on archival issues have used approaches in adressing people in 
Washington or the public that I would avoid.

I may be wrong -- I'm influenced by the fact that I'm a Federal government 
historian, not an academic historian.  But I don't get the sense that many 
academic historians make much of an effort to think strategically, perhaps because 
they operate in a publish or perish environment where they may come to view 
fellow historians as rivals in putting out books.  And where they are accustomed 
to speaking from a position of sole authority in the classroom.  Government 
historians, on the other hand, often are the only people in their agencies who 
are trained in history and archives.  In my experience, they're more likely 
than are professors to ponder how others view issues that are of importance to 
them but difficult to convey to others; to collaborate with people in other 
disciplines to accomplish their goals; and also to think strategically.  At 
least, that's been my experience.

All of which is a long way of saying that much as it fascinates me, I think 
it is short sighted only to talk to the public about government and policy 
history.  We shouldn't overlook the human interest, business and legal angles in 
records.  Records pertaining to such matters are more likely to reside in local 
and municipal archives rather than in the Federal records held by NARA.  
Still, as NARA's well crafted physical and virtual exhibits show, there's a 
surprisingly wide range of interesting topics covered in its holdings.  

NARA's "Democracy starts here" slogan on its website is a nice one but I'm 
afraid it probably is viewed by relatively few Americans.  As does Richard, I 
believe that we need to help spread the word on behalf of NARA but the question 
is, how?

Maarja (obviously with time on her hands this Saturday, after a busy week at 
work, LOL)

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