In the Past Lane

This text brings together a decade of writing from American cultural historian Michael Kammen. They cover a broad spectrum of interests, including: the role of the historian; the relationship between culture and the State; uses of tradition in American commercial culture; American historical art; memory distortion in American history; and the contested uses of history in American education. The volume includes "Personal Identity and the Historian's Vocation" in which Kammen considers the complex interplay between historians' personal lives - their religion, ideology, race, gender, sexual orientation - and the history they write. Drawing on reflections from historians' memoirs and letters, Kammen seeks to take the reader inside the "process" of history and trace the movement away from delusions of objectivity to an engaged and personal approach to the past. Other concerns include the distinction between heritage and history, how multicultural art exhibits are developed, and the iconography of judgement in American courthouses.