Fabricating Heritage
David
Lo enthal
Fabrication has t o common meanings. One is to construct ith divine
o
arti ice, li e ames Ho ell s
Almighty abricator o the universe
rare save in archaeology and boo
positive usage, no
to a ton
in the i teenth century. Only in the
binding, goes bac
abricate appear in hat the OED calls a bad
eighteenth century does
1 45. This
as in build or
ma e up
orging,
alsi ying,ma ing up. To
the current use, ma ing something up,
compose is at least haucerian
telling lies and tall stories, dates only rom the 1850s. From the start,
sense
anti- atholic
abricated
slurs abound Henry
Hallam s
to enrich the churches under
every saint had his legend,
his protection
(1818)
lies abricated by priests (1855).
such priestiy abrication sets the stage and the tone or this
arbarossa. As a re ard
paper. Milan in 11 2 had ust allen to Frederic
numerous
Macaulay s
One
or his help in the con uest, archbishop-elect Rainald o ologne pillages
Milan s
relics. Rainald s most notable coup is the remains o theMagi,
consent by
they are on the move again.
o Pope Ale ander III, the three
legendarily brought rom onstantinople
St. Eustorgio in an o -cart in 314. No
ith
onstantine s
aylaid en route by minions
Though
co ins ith their sacred booty reach ologne unharmed. In Nicolas o
Verdun s splendid golden shrine (c. 1200) they become ologne s main
patrons.
ings by the thirteenth century ere a royal cult,
emperors coming to venerate theMagi a ter being cro ned inAachen.
Otto IV o
runs ic
had himsel portrayed on the reli uary as the
The
Fourth
Three
ing.
elatedly
theMilanese
lamented the the t.The
si teenth
5
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David
Lo cnthal
orromeo campaigned
or their return in
century Archbishop St. arlo
toMilan.
1909 a e Magi
ragments ere actually sent rom ologne
ut they ere not sent bac
they had never been inMilan. The
hole story onstantine,
been
Eustorgio, removal to ologne had
abricated by Rainald. Every mention o theMagi inMilan traces to the
ere tardy in
onder
the Milanese
archbishop s o n account. No
recogni ing the the t only in the late thirteenth century did Rainald s
tale reach them. Then Milan mourned
the loss o relics ithad never had.
purpose as clear: to promote the po er o the emperor
and the glory o
ologne. Relics o the Savior ere the most precious
hrist s
the Fran s got rom Italy and the Holy Land. As symbols o
hurch
trumped vestiges o
lordship and o divine ingship, theMagi
Rainald s
Fathers and Roman
veneration
martyrs.
as vital to their e
they needed a pedigree a legacy o
onstantine, the
icacy in ologne. Hence
ut
o -cart, ste ardship inMilan, their incorruptible state en route. And it
here Visconti patronage o the
or ed.
It or ed even in Milan,
lamented Magi helped scutde both republicanism and Torriani
amily
to
Frederic
arba
rivals accused o e posing theMagis
hiding place
rossa.1
as
ays. It con irmed the
Empire s sacred roots. It updated and enlarged a use ul biblical leg
no n o the Magi, not even ho many they
be ore as
end litde
This
abrication
orthy
in various
ere.
It became an e emplar o other sacred translations ragments o
bone and dust that ere easy to a e, easy to steal, easy tomove, easy to
rom ish ul
saints as needed. It begot great value
reassign to ne
ound
antasy. It destroyed nothing, not even aith hen the a e as
out.
The
abrication o
theMagi
underscores
the moral
o
this paper.
relics, heritage today is a popular cult, almost
to heritage is a spiritual calling li e nursing
a religious aith. Devotion
as ames Lees-Milne
or being inHoly Orders,
termed his o n career
Li e the medieval
cult o
or England s National
rescuing historic English country houses
Trust.2 Tal ing ith me, a successor s verbal slip echoed the analogy:
When I oined the hurch I
mean, the Trust. The Trust s supreme
o
restorers ho
scraped medieval churches
and cathedrals clean o the debris o time and neglect, so as to per ect
their divinity.3 The English are not the only such devotees. Heritage
tidiness recalls those Victorian
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Fabricating Heritage
a a ens piety the orld over. Australians are said to spend more o
their spiritual energy in uests or enshrined symbols o identity than in
any other pursuit
is one o the great
orship o the past inAustralia
secular religions. 4
The creed o heritage ans ers needs or ritual devotion, especially
here other ormal aith has become per unctory or mainly political. Li e
osters e hilarating
ealties. For no other
religious causes, heritage
a dilettante
do peoples so readily ta e up arms. Once
li ened
pastime, the pursuit and de ense o patrimonial legacies is no
to the rusades bitter,
protracted and ruthless.
commitment
The religious analogy e tends to modes o belie : heritage relies on
revealed aith rather than rational proo . We elect and e alt our legacy
not by eighing its claims to truth, but in eeling that itmust be right.
The mainstay is not mental e ort but moral
eal.
ou can t be taught
as the singer assandra Wilson
says it s a legacy. 5
Attachment to legacy is also blamed
or many evils chauvinist
e cess, elitist reaction, vainglory and vulgarity, above all arping history.
no vice
I argue here that heritage s gravest supposed sin abrication is
a ,
but a virtue. I touch on si points: ho heritage di ers rom history hy
it needs error and invention ho
heritage reshapes the past public
abrication autobiographical analogies and the need to o n
approval o
our
o n
heritage.
Heritage
Heritage
is not
history
should not be con used
ith history. History see s to convince
alsehood. Heritage e aggerates and omits,
by truth, and succumbs to
candidly invents and ran ly orgets, and thrives on ignorance and error.
Time and hindsight alter history, too. ut historians revisions must
is more
accepted tenets o evidence. Heritage
le ibly
emended. Historians ignore at pro essional peril the hole corpus o past
no ledge that heritage can airily transgress.
con orm
ith
Heritage uses historical traces and tells historical tales. ut these
tales and traces are stitched into ables closed to critical scrutiny.
is immune to criticism because it is not erudition but cate
Heritage
chism not
chec able
act but credulous
allegiance. Heritage
is not a
7
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David
Lo enthal
testable or even plausible version o our past it is a declaration o aith
in that past. Loyalty and bonding demand uncritical endorsement and
is banned because group success, even
preclude dissent. Deviance
or Finnish patriots the
survival, depend on all pulling together. Thus
that
alevala
though a clear counter eit is nonetheless a holy boo
re lects their deepest being
sin against theHoly
host.
... that is a
i a Finn ridicules the alevala
it is utile to vili yheritage as biased. Pre udiced pride in the
past is not the sorry upshot o heritage but its essential aim. Heritage
attests our identity and a irmsour orth. When the patriot upholds my
Hence
country, right or rong,
heritage tells him it is al ays right. S amped
that
artime heroics, Richard
obb
concluded
by bogus tales o
it a rule to assume that our country is al ays
historians ought to ma e
Monuments,
rong. 7
arned
estivals,
the sociologist William
mottoes,
oratory
... never
help
history,
raham Sumner
they protect errors and
diverges rom history not in being biased
sancti y pre udice. 8 Heritage
but in its vie o bias. Historians
aim to reduce bias heritage sanctions
and strengthens it.
to
essential
Fabrication
ealty
is not per ecdy
or us alone. History
or all, heritage
hoard sources, archives get loc ed a ay, critics are denied
open scholars
History
access,
is
misdeeds
are
erased.
ut
most
historians
condemn
concealment.
In contrast, heritage restrictsmessages to an elect group hose private
ill listen hat has happened and
property it is. History tells all ho
ho
things came to be as they are. Heritage passes on e clusive myths
o origin and endurance, endo ing us alone ith prestige and purpose.
rom others. Sharing or even sho ing
It bene its us by being ithheld
a legacy to outsiders vitiates its value and po er.
Heritage
eeps outsiders at bay by ba ling and o ensive claims o
superiority. eing clannish is essential to group survival and ell-being.
ithin and e clusion beyond the group stem rom aith not
onding
reason: e e alt heritage not because it is true but because it ought to be.
To e clude others, heritage cannot be universally true to those beyond
the pale its tenets must de y reason. Empirical error and irrational
8
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Fabricating Heritage
argument render our heritage opa ue
tenable only to us.
or useless
to others, clear and
From some legendary seed each group gro s delusory aiths aiths
mountain o
alse
nutritive not despite but due to their la s. A
rong belie s are
a legacy con ers and by the
e cludes those hose o n
sustains all societies.9 The bad e
in ormation
more
than compensated by the bonding
barriers it erects. Shared misin ormation
orrect
legacy encodes other catechisms.
alse
serve, because it is open to all. Only
ects o
no ledge
could not
so
no ledge can become a
gauge o e clusion.10 Heritage mandates
readings o the past.
Such misreadings become cherished myth. The civic value o noble
lies is e plained in Plato s Republic. For the general good, Socrates
contrives
thin
Fe
o
a poetic airy story, a magni icent myth
that ill ma e men
the land as theirmother and protect her i she is attac ed.
at
this abrication, but it ould
succeed
ith
later generations. 11 Sacred origins sanction li e myths today. ou are
in Sumner s e ample.
as ed i you believe in theMonroe Doctrine,
ould
irstbelieve
ou do not dare to say you do not no
hat it is, because every good
American is bound to believe in it.12 To tamper ith the received story
notes a modern historian, because
o any people s past is dangerous,
it disturbs the sancti ied version thatma es
the present bearable. 13
Heritage every here thrives on persisting error.
etting itshistory
rong is crucial or the creation o a nation, Renan com orted his ello
French.14 English historians praise precursors muddled
thought as a
national virtue. We made our peace ith theMiddle Ages by miscon
struing them
rong history as one o our assets, e ulted utter ield.
theMiddle Ages, historians gave
Precisely because they did not no
the seventeenth century ust the type o anachronism
it needed they
constitution or a restoration o ancient liberties.
England s ne
Use ul because mista en, this able became a pillar o the national
hatever itmay have done to our history, ithad a onder ul
heritage
e ect on English politics. 15 To this day the ritish revere Whig
mistoo
unreason. Opposing a House o Lords bill to let daughters inherit tides,
the historian Trevor-Roper
lauds male primogeniture as
(Lord Dacre)
traditionally
irrational. 1
S iss heritage too sets myth above truth. Since history
school o patriotism, its te ts should be corrected ith caution,
as
a
arned
9
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David
Lo enthal
an 1870s educator. To destroy aith in traditions that symboli e
and republican virtues
ould
corrode patriotism.17 William
liberty
TelPs
iction, but the
oppressor is a notorious
in allible archer, the apple and the cap are too pivotal to S iss identity
to give up. A 1994 e hibit in Lausanne
that debun ed Tell and other
as sub ected to savage
props o S iss virtue as pseudo-historical
de iance o
the Hapsburg
abuse.18
The
epic o
Ireland s
or reedom is a bene icent legacy, its
rendan
radsha
Heritage
champion
uest
rongness not ithstanding.
terms the tale o tribulations crucial to Irish identity. They all no
it s
not true, says an Ulster atholic o one saga o Protestant in amy, but
that on t stop them believing it. In a e years it ill be gospel. 19 It
is a ree
credo that secret schools run by mon s
ept Hellenic culture
as largely
alive under Tur ish oppressors. In act, ree
schooling
tolerated during Ottoman rule. ut it is orbidden to say so. Even i it
as a myth, e plains a prominent ree , it should still be propagated,
or such myths are essential to the national identity. 20
Fiction resists act to persist as heritage. Parson Weems s
ables
about
have been
shattered again and again,
eorge Washington
scholars note, but they live on in the popular mind, and nothing can
e tirpate them. The saga o Rhondda Valley miners shot do n by army
is an outrage theWelsh
ill never orget yet every
as there ne
in osephine
the story as nonsense,
reton ol lore classic ar a - rei ,
ancient
ords.21 The
long
troops in 1910
ho
single man
Tey s
e posed as a nineteenth-century pastiche, is still accepted as the authentic
voice o the reton people because si generations have used it to
e press
that
voice.22
error as heritage is the theme o
oseph Roth s
hose hero rescues Emperor Fran
Radets y March,
oseph at the batde
o Sol erino in 1859. ears later, he reads a gushy version o the rescue
ommending
in his son s school te t. It s a pac o lies, he yells.
aptain, you re
are modi ied
a
events
too
All
riend.
historical
it
ta ing
seriously, says
hildren need
in schools. And
or consumption
uite right, too.
e amples they can understand, hich impress them. They can learn later
hat actually occurred. The Emperor too re ects literal truth. It s a bit
a
ard, he admits, but neither o us sho s up too badly in the story.
Forget
it. 23
10
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Fabricating Heritage
routinely purge traits repugnant to group pride. I don t ant
1 -year-olds al ing out o there thin ing badly o the United States,
a Massachusetts
congressman e plained his opposition to the Smith
We
ohnson, a
ay e hibition. Representative Sam
as stillmore
ne
Smithsonian Regent,
orthright: We ve got to get
ant the Smithsonian to re lect
patriotism bac into the Smithsonian. We
sonian s abortive Enola
and not something that a historian dreamed up. 24
The real America o patriotic dreams has long dominated school
ashion
history te ts. Shoing national heroes in an uncomplimentary
to American
school
is o ensive
even though
actually accurate
real America
boards.
ivic
allegiance
remains the main
aim o most
school history.
Are you going
Publishers e punge anything a
ard or even debatable.
a te tboo
to tell ds that Thomas
e erson didn t believe in esus
editor as ed a history teacher. Not me 25 I there s something that s
controversial, it s better to ta e it out. To avoid any o ense, one
past notables li e Roosevelt and
publisher ould omit controversial
ith any living people
ho might possibly become
Ni on,
along
uture is ditched along ith the suspect past.
in amous. 2 The dubious
lessons that encourage s epticism about ritish heroes and
heroines, sullying the reputations o Florence Nightingale, Lord Nelson
and Al red the reat, are similarly suspect. We ere taught in history
History
as all about spreading civili ation,
a
class that the French Empire
French o icial reacts to Waterloo.
We aren t going to ma e movies to
e
as
no
that hat really happened
call that into uestion, eveni
pro oundly di erent. 27 The desire to re rite the past to con orm ith
group pride is too universal to be dismissed as a conspiracy, historians
concede, nor is it sinister to ant to manipulate national history, as e
all do
ith our o n lives. 28
In sum, heritage every here not only tolerates but thrives on
historical error. Falsi ied legacies are integral to group identity and
ho see a past as sound as a bell orget that bells
uni ueness. Those
need built-in imper ections to bring out their individual resonances.
11
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David
Lo enthal
o
Modes
abrication
imper ections are these Space precludes more than a
summary list o a hal do en common
ays in hich heritage alters the
past.29 rie ly, it upgrades, ma ing the past better than it as (or orse,
What
inds o
to attract sympathy). It updates, anachronistically reading bac
rom the
present ualities e ant to see in past icons and heroes or restoring
to loo li e
paintings in line ith modern pre erences or aMichelangelo
aMatisse.
It umbles the past in a synchronic undi erentiated Dumpster,
so that the auls come close to de aulle, Eli abeth I oins Eli abeth II,
itchcra t and pseudomemories o satanic abuse tread the same American
stage. It selectively orgets the evil or indecorous or incomprehensible in
acts o oblivion and bo dleri ing.30 It contrivesgenealogies to satis y
mysti ues o lineage, as
Troy and revolutionaries
ings ho traced themselves to
ho bolstered claims ith classical prototypes.
ith medieval
It claims precedence as a bona
ide o possession, superiority or virtue, as
ith primogeniture, Piltdo n Man, and today s First Nation peoples.
in common
ith cinema,
(These modes o contrivance have much
hich many i not most people derive compelling notions o
through
the
past.)31
Several
such
abrications
merge
at
Plymouth,
Massachusetts.
T o
centuries a ter the Pilgrim landing in 1 20, heritage celebrants ound a
on hich May lo er passengers ought to have stepped
suitable Roc
ashore, and put it on the harbor ront under a bi arre classical canopy.
That Plymouth is abundandy mythic is clear rom common tourist
some onder
ueries at the site: Why doesn t the roc say 1492
The nearby May lo er
others as , Where is the s ord
replica
as
Where are the Nina
and the PintaV
rein orces the mysti ue:
did he get all those animals on that litde
boat 32 All the past ismade one, the Planting o Ne
England merged
biblical lore. As
ith the Discovery o America, medieval
and
legend
and the
history this is absurd as heritage it s hugely symbolic. The Roc
visitors. And best o
May lo er
to ne
stand
all:
Ho
or all beginnings, all voyages to ne
ays.
12
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orlds,
all paths
Fabricating Heritage
endorsement
Public
elebrating some bits and
made easy to embrace. And
orgetting others, heritage reshapes a past
ust as heritage practitioners ta e pride in
rom history
creating arti ice, the public en oys consuming it.Departures
distress only a hand ul o highbro s. Most neither see historical veracity
nor mind
its absence. Echoing Washington
Irving s indulgence o
spurious Sha espeare relics at Strat ord in 1815, they are ever illing to
be deceived, here the deceit is pleasant and costs nothing. What is it to
us, hether these stories be true or alse, so long as e can persuade
ourselves
into the belie
o
them 33
To be sure, heritage consumers are readily duped producers happily
connive to gull them. Li e Magritte and Dali, they e ult in deception.
An English hobbyist built a ull-scale Hursley
rail ay station complete
ith tarnish and soot he as elated hen a visitor said, Do you no ,
in that very signal-bo
my grand ather used to or
34
to
eel
con
irm
Legacy promoters
obliged
popular error. Medieval
per ormers play Renaissance music on si teenth-century sha ms and
regals because these later sounds and instruments e empli y hat hearers
u or s 1934 ilm o atherine the reat,
ormedieval. Adolph
The Scarlet Empress, replaced St Petersburg s elegant classical palaces ith
neo- othic monstrosities, and the delicacies o aro ue harpsichord and
and Tchai ovs y, because these ere
hat
strings ith lushWagner
mista e
palaces
A
at nole,
and
Russia
con ured up in the popular mind.35
play sho s Vita Sac ville-West dining alone ith her mother
the amily seat, in 1910.
ere both in ull evening dress, sitting at opposite ends o a
ootmen in livery and a buder in tails stood
long table. T o
impassively along one side o the table hile Vita and her mother
They
discussed
ut
se .
in 1910 mothers didn t discuss se
ith their daughters, let alone
in ront o the servants, ob ected Vita s son Nigel Nicolson
they
ould not be earing evening dress, nor the ootmen livery they ould
be sitting side by side at a much smaller table. The director as
13
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David
Lo enthal
the scene needed highlighting in a ay that the audience
unregenerate:
e pected. It as more truth ul than actuality. 3
An adviser ho disputed invented episodes in the 1970
ilm
as
told that most people
no
ouldn t
hadn t happened, so it ouldn t matter. 37 It ouldn t
rom ell
that such events
have mattered
i
they had no n
inding that revered tradition is recent invention leaves
most people un a ed. From the Donation
to the
onstantine
o
Protocols
o
the Elders o
ion,
biases
that induced
a es in the irst
sustain
aith in them long a ter their e posure. Indeed, dubious
as ames Mac
Ossian
origins enhance many a tradition. E posing
pherson s orgery in lamed the Scottish nationalism ithad ignited.Merely
place
in
ound
the authenticity o the medieval manuscripts
in 1818 indled
ech nationalism philologist Vaclav Han a
even more acclaimed as their orger than their inder.38 Piltdo n
uerying
ohemia
as
gained enduring ame as a a e.
as a national
Israel still deploys the Dead Sea ortress o Masada
irst-centurymass
symbol, though all evidence discredits the myth o
than be ta en as slaves, 9 7 ealots illed themselves
suicide rather
Man
only one survived to tell the tale. Masada
intoned poet it ha Lamdan s
Masada
became a ritualmecca
scouts
Shall Not
Fall Again
round
e ish historian
camp ires hile guides read aloud the speech theRoman
osephus invented or the last survivor. Today visitors come toMasada
not or tangible evidence o the ancient legend, but or a modern passion
play o national rebirth.39
Sites ill ully contrived o ten
serve heritage better than those
aith ullypreserved. A visitor to eatri Potter s Hilltop Farm in the La e
I al ays imagined Peter Rabbit-land 40
District e claims, This is ho
ut Scodand, not the La e District, inspired Peter Rabbit hers as the
ul illmentnot o
act but o
ancy.We demand o heritage an imagined,
not
an
actual,
past.
may seem more real, because more
its
hen
amiliar, than the original. Visitors thronged the Alamo
actors rom
memorial mural replaced the actual heroes ith Holly ood
the 19 0 ilm Davy roc ett is better no n as ohnWayne than ith
What
is media- abricated
le across the
Spirit o Saint Louis that Lindbergh
Adantic, enshrined at the Smithsonian, a es e er than the plane in
in the movie
it
le
that immy Ste art
Dearborn s
Ford Museum
his o n
ace. The
14
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Fabricating Heritage
as
the Holly ood
sa
crossing the ocean. 41 The
plane that people
legacy o Mar T ain s boyhood Hannibal, Missouri, attests the orce o
Active truth.When the home o T ain s old s eetheart Laura Ha ins
ec y Thatcher s
ictional identity and had
became
embraced
house, the elderly Laura
T
inscribed on her headstone.42
this
Fa ed heritage can be elicitous. In 1993 si missing Haydn sonatas
ere unearthed and
then e posed as modern. The Haydn
e pert
Robbins Landon had vouched
or their authenticity he as unrepentant.
It s the most brilliant
this good.
music
raud, he said. I don t mind being ta en in by
hat Haydn
ould have ritten in this ey at this
It s
tour guide leading a group o nuns in hrist s
ootsteps in
erusalem says, This isn t the ay He actually came. ut it s a more
the guide isn tmoc ing the sacred past, he is o ering
interesting route
time. 43 A
a more
accessible Via Dolorosa.44
He
is also
ames s Sha espearean
ollo ing the lead o Henry
to
to
raise receipts:
curator, ho succumbs
hype
irthplace
stand here in the old living-room. Through those lo
indo s,
as to ma e
in childhood, He peered out into the orld thatHe
We
so much happier by the gi t o His genius over the boards o this
loor that
is over some o
them, or e mustn t be carried
litde eet o ten pattered. In this old chimney cor
a ay His
litde stool as placed
ind the hearth-stone
ner ust there is the very angle, here His
e should
i e could loo close enough,
scraped
ith His
litde eet.
they ant any truth none even or the mere
as s an appalled crony. The loo o it, says the curator, is
Visitors adore it. Don t
loo
o
it
hat I give 45
latant deceit is the raison d etre o Peter Sha
er s play Lettice and
lights o
ancy that bring
Lovage. His tour guide thrills visitors ith
to li e as bald
Fustian Hall
acts ail to do.
enlighten is her ma im
We need antasy. luttons
ble past an
soundness o
at Strat ord,
loods in here
Enlarge enliven
act leaves a vacuum.
antasy
or alse acts, e bring to themost improba
immense assumption o
sacred truths , o the general
the legend, notes
ames li eOtto at ologne and Irving
e
s allo
the reli uary shell s
preposterous
stu
ing
15
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David
Lo enthal
e
no
e re being
ed by
uite hole
ennett says, scepticism about one s
partisans. As play right Alan
heritage is an essential part o that heritage. 4
almost
ut not
hole.
Heritage
and
li e history
ers stri ing parallels. Heritage
and li e history are
similarly updated and upgraded. As sho n above, historians admit the
li e heritage de ies history s rules. Sel
analogy.47 Autobiography
o
Autobiography
acts and use
chroniclers alter
ictions that ould
ban historians
rom
academe.48 As
ith heritage, li ehistories become coherent and credible
only by invention, o ten in de iance o no n act. They persuade us not
as vero but ben trovato.
ou don t even thin o your o n past as uite
ohn Fo les muses
real,
you dress it up, you gild it or blac en it,
censor it, tin er ith it in a ord,
ictionali e it. 49
The need to reshape our o n past is evident to every autobiogra
pher and analyst. Li e medieval chroniclers limning e emplary lives,
today s memoirists aim to impose their o n moral versions o the past.
e need to remember,
We choose to remember mista enly
hat
comments
a
historian,
identities. 50 We
a
preserve
our
individual
and
collective
alse sense o
consistency by updating
ith our present vie s, remaining una are ho
our attitudes have changed over time. Such mista es become
memories
much
achieve
to
to accord
i ed articles o
hole has developed
contradict
that li e individuals, man ind as a
inaccessible to logical criticism and hich
aith. Freud noted
delusions
reality. 51
liars o us all: a amed analyst cites the 2 5-year-old ho
said he had been third in his class at 50 he recalled being second at 75
a li e orth
he as sure he had come
irst. To become heroes o
Time ma es
remembering, a drama orth having lived or, oldsters retool their
erratic our recall, it is at least our o n. I e cannot
pasts.52 Ho ever
holly e punge hat once ve ed or shamed us, e can tell our o n tale
better than anyone else.
said the riter Robertson
It s an e cellent biography o someone else,
li e o
udith S elton rant s ne
Davies, o
ut I ve really lived inside mysel , and she can t get in there. 53A
line in the song
illing Me So tly runs Telling my hole li e in his
him.
1
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Fabricating Heritage
really ant to tell our li e in our o n ords. Hence
biographers are o ten th arted not being us, they re bound
but
ords
ould-be
e
to get things rong.
Li e ste ards ho
eep heritage impenetrable to outsiders, sub ects
ant biographers to get things rong impugning
their motives
may
li e Freud, evading them li e Pyncheon and Salinger, being cryptic or
e uivocal li e ec ett and Nabo ov, cra ting a luminously impenetrable
li e
ames, or, li e ompton- urnett,
setting rival
autobiography
chroniclers at each other s throats.54 The classic case is Thomas Hardy,
ho
ith his i e s
spent years ghost- riting his biography and,
collusion, passing it o as her o n, an impersonation that one critic elt
deserved the title The Li e and Wor
o Thomas Hardy
by Florence
Hardy, by Thomas Hardy. 55
Since sel -chronicles rely on recall to hich others lac access, they
are not open to correction. A sole survivor is a privileged itness. hided
or omitting rom Notes o a Son and rother parts o a letter rom his
brotherWilliam, Henry
ames e plained that he instinctively regard ed
as
it at last
all my truth, to do hat I ould
ith. The brothers letters
ere
or ames not
mere merciless transcript but imaginativerecord.
arvin Fields is outraged to ind that her memoirist granddaugh
Mamie
ter chec ed her stories in the local archives going
behind her bac ,
violating her trust. Even events e cannot possibly remember, li e our
treat their birth li e
birth, are not sub ect to uestion. Autobiographers
a piece
rites Philippe Le eune.
This
property or a diploma,
grounds their entire narrative on an irre utable beginning. 5
Salman Rushdie s
clear memory o having been in India during the
o
hina War
in 19 2, contrary to the acts, sho s the tenacity o delusive
recall:
rightened e all ere, I recall people ma ing
nervy litde o es about needing to buy themselves a hinese phrase
... I also no
boo
that I couldn t have been in India at that time.
I remember
ho
et even a ter I ound out that my memory as playing tric smy
brain simply re used to unscramble itsel . It clung to the alse
memory.
17
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Lo enthal
David
hildren clings to no n error.
protagonist inMidnight s
It s memory s
ould pre er
truth, he insists, and only a madman
So Rushdie s
someone
else s
to his
version
o n. 57
shares ith li e history immunity to correction even by
Heritage
e have consigned our childhood to print it is hard to
ourselves. Once
remember in any other ay transcribing i es that account as our only
memory and condemns us, li e ohn Dean a terWatergate,
hat is celebrated becomes
repetition. So ith heritage:
to ormulaic
immune to
ollective heritage sources range ar beyond personal
recall, but these sources too resist correction by others. Since e alone
understand our legacy, e are ree, or maybe bound, to construe it as e
conscious revision.
ho share a communal legacy must accept
eel it ought to be. Those
some agreed notion o its nature. ut each sharer treats that corporate
as his o n. Li e personal memory,
be uest
it ismeant
to be opa ue
to
outsiders.58
Fiction
lives a more
is not the opposite o
act but its complement, giving our
lasting shape. To locate our o n private stories ithin a
true
lies,
larger collective narrative, notes a historian, e embrace
credible alsehoods. That myths are batty and irrational does not spoil
amelot and the rail lac historical integrity but carry
their orth.
li e theMay lo er saga, these rooted myths lend
eight
psychological
cosmic meaning to our o n uests.59 As the presenter o Ale Haley s
lagrandy anachronistic Roots said, There you have it, some o it true,
and some o it iction, but all o it true, in the true meaning o the
ord. 0
WH
HERITA E MUST
E
OURS
a heritage
Heritage li e li ehistory must above all be our very o n. Only
that is clearly ours is orth having. The issue is o nership and control,
and theNational Par
says a civil-rights veteran batding both Holly ood
or interpretive ste ardship o themovement and its sites. I e
don t tell the story or control the telling, then it s no longer about us. 1
amaicans
Egyptians most o hose anti uities have ended up in Europe,
Service
hose
beaches
are
enced o
or e clusive tourist use, cannot suppose
these legacies their o n.
18
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Fabricating Heritage
as the point made by
heritage possession
soldier-scholar-mythma er igael adin to Israeli army recruits s orn in
atMasada:
The
signal value o
stood among his troops ne t to the pyramids o
Napoleon
Four thousand years o history loo do n
Egypt, he declared:
ut hat ould he not have given to be able to say:
upon you.
When
Four thousand years o your o n history loo
do n upon you. 2
The point o heritage, avers a Scottish custodian, is not that the public
should learn something but that they should become something.
hoices
are constrained, to be sure heritage comes already selected and labeled
by precursors. ut ust to inherit is not enough people must reali e they
are heirs to the past, heirs to the collections they o n, ree to decide
or themselves hat they are going to do ith the past, hat itmeans
or them no
itmay mean
or them in the uture. 3We must
eel sure the past s legacies have become our very o n.
As a living orce the past is ever remade. Heritage cannot be stored
and
hat
in a vault or an attic the true ste ard adds his o n stamp to his pre
decessors . It is our elt duty to augment hat e be ueath
the legacy
resonance
must gain ne
hile in our care. 4 Only a heritage ever
stays relevant. It is than s to modern care that classical
said
splendor still su uses reece, say patriots. When you are born,
Melina Mercouri,
they tal to you about the Parthenon, theAcropolis.
reanimated
Everyone in reece thin s they have built it ith their o n hands. 5 To
eep the legacy alive, ree s build amphitheaters, cherish ancient names,
launch replica triremes, copy classical acades. Faith that i you spo e li e
Plato you might also begin to thin li e him spurs use o the ancient
tongue.
To reshape is as vital as to preserve. As Or ell bluntly arned those
e must add to our
English he sa mired in compliant reaction,
Li e Rainald, Haley
and others, e add by
heritage or lose it.
abricating.
19
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David
Lo enthal
Notes
InauguralHeritage Lecture, StMary s University ollege, Stra berryHill,
T ic enham, England, 7 Dec. 1995.
1. Patric
. eary, Living ith theDead in theMiddle Ages (Ithaca, N ,
1994), 251-55 Timothy Raison, The Magi inLegend, inWe Three ings: The
Magi inArt and Legend, e hibition catalog, uc inghamshire ounty Museum
(Aylesbury,1995), 7-10.
2.
ames
Lees-Milne,
People
and
Places:
House
ountry
Donors
and
the
National Trust (London, 1992), 5.
3. Adam
Tidiness
Nicolson,
and
the Trust,
National
no.
Trust Maga ine,
58 (Autumn 1989): 37-39.
4. Les A. Murray, Persistence in Folly (Sydney, 1984), 114, 2 .
5. uoted in lue lac Smo e, Observer (London), 31 Oct. 1993.
. Finnish scholars c. 1917
inWilliam A. Wilson, Fol lore and
Nationalism inModern Finland ( loomington, IN, 197 ), 7 -79. See also Alon
as
Nation
The
on ino,
uoted
a Local
Metaphor,
History
5, no.
Memory
1
(Spring/Summer 1993): 42-8 .
7. Richard
French
obb,
and
ermans
ermans,
and
French
(Hanover,
NH,
v.
1983),
8.William
9.
raham Sumner, Fol
in Analysis
onstructions
Freud,
Sigmund
3 .
oston, 1940),
ays (190
in The
(1937),
Standard
Edition o the omplete PsychologicalWor s o Sigmund Freud, trans, and ed.
ames Strachey,vol. 23 (London, 19 4), 2 8- 9.
no ledge o the ro th o
Wittgenstein (London, 1985), 282-302.
10. Peter Mun ,
11.
The
Plato,
12. William
(Ne Haven,
13.
Donna
trans.
Republic,
Desmond
Lee,
2d
no ledge: Popper or
ed.
(London,
1974),
181-82.
pp.
414c-415d,
Our
raham Sumner, War
1919), 3 .
Mer ic ,
omment
(1903),
on
ames
in his War and Other Essays
Hi a a,
Why
Lost , William
Mary uarterly 51 (1994): 73 -39.
14. Ernest Renan, What Is a Nation
(1882), inHomi
.
the West
Is
habha, ed.,
(London, 1990), 11.
utter ield,The Englishman and His History ( ambridge, 1944),
Nation and Narration
15. Herbert
7-9.
1 . Times
8 Mar.
(London),
17. Ale andre Daguet
Monde,
Association
( verdon-les- ains,
1994.
uoted in enevieve Heller, D un
(1872)
du Musee
S it erland,
de
PEcole
1993),
et de
PEducation,
38.
20
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All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Pays et du
e hibition
te t
Fabricating Heritage
18.
harles
Un
Heimberg,
le centenaire
anniversaire:
etrange
du premier
aout
( eneva, 1990), 1- 3 Werner Meyer, 1291: Vhistoire: Les premices de la
on ederation suisse ( urich, 1991) idem,Nos ancetres lesWaldstaetten: La Suisse
centrale au HIe siecle:Mythes et histoire (Musee Histori ue de Lausanne
e hibition, 1994), 48 Olivier Pavilion, Du debat a Panatheme, Revue Suisse
d Histoire (1995): 311-14.
19.
rendan
Nationalism
radsha ,
and Historical
in Modern
Scholarship
olm Toibin, Ne Ways
Ireland, IrishHistorical Studies 2 (1989): 348-49
o
illing our Father, London Revie
o oo s, 18 Nov. 1993, 3riege
Du aud, A Wreath upon theDead (S ords, o. Dublin, 1993), 445.
20.
Harry
Richard
The
logg,
Hana ,
and Their
ree s
in Dennis
Past,
as Nation- uilders:
eds., Historians
entral
Deletant
and
and
South-Eastern
Europe (London, 1988), 28.
21. Henry abot Lodge (1915)
ammen, Mystic hords
uoted inMichael
or ,
o Memory: The Trans ormation o Tradition inAmerican ulture (Ne
The
Time
95.
484
1991),
osephineTey,
(London, 1954),
Daughter o
22. Morvan Lebes ue (1970) uoted in Ellen adone, Fol Literature and
the Invention o
une
typescript,
Hersart
Tradition: The
ase
ean- ves
1995)
o
Le
uiomar,
in Pierre Nora,
de La Villemar ue,
the
ar a - rei
(unpublished
ar a - rei
ed., Les
lieu
de
de memoire,
Theodore
pt. 3, Les
France (Paris, 1992), vol. 2, Traditions, 554.
23. osephRoth, The Radets yMarch (1932 London, 1974), 7-10.
24.
in Ed ard
uoted
T. Linenthal,
and Memory,
ith History
Struggling
ournal o American History 82 (1995): 1100.
25. amesW. Loe en, Lies My Teacher ToldMe: EverythingTour American
or , 1995), 285, 172.
History Te tboo ot Wrong (Ne
2 . Holt, Rinehart andWinston agent (1982) uoted in oan DelFattore,
What ohnnyShouldn t Read (Ne Haven, 1992), 131-32 publisher uoted in
Diane Ravitch, Decline and Fall o Teaching History, Ne
Tor Times
17 Nov.
Maga ine,
27.
Sept.
uoted
ritish
1995
curriculum
French
in Ronald
to Forget,
5 .
1985,
adviser
culture ministry
National
oven,
Tate
Nicholas
in Times
Andre-Marc
spo esman
Memory:
uoted
The
Duty
18
(London),
Deloc ue-Fourcaud
to Remember,
the Need
Society32, no.
(1995): 57.
oyceAppleby, Lynn Hunt and Margaret
acob, Telling theTruth about
307.
or , 1994),
History (Ne
29. These are elaborated more ullyinmy Possessed by thePast: TheHeritage
28.
rusade and theSpoils o History (Ne
30.
See my
Memory
and Oblivion,
or , 199 ).
Museum
Management
12 (1993): 171-82.
and
uratorship
21
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All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
David
Lo enthal
31. Robert A. Rosenstone, Visions o thePast: The hallenge o Film toOur
Idea o History ( ambridge,MA, 1994).
32.
ohnMcPhee, Travels o theRoc , Ne
or er,2 Feb. 1990,108-17.
33. Ian T. Ousby, The Englishman s England: Taste, Travel and theRise o
Tourism ( ambridge, 1990), 39-55 Washington Irving, Strat ord-on-Avon
(1815), in his The S etchboo o eo rey rayon, ent. (London, n.d.), 253.
34.
at
in discussion
ean Little
Travellers
in Time,
Literature
hildren s
Ne
Ne nham ollege, ambridge, England, Aug. 1989
England summer institute,
idem, Little byLittle: A Writer s Education (Mar ham,Ont., 1987), 103-104.
35.
The
Eric son,
arolly
Scarlet
in Mar
Empress,
Imper ect:History According to theMovies (Ne
3 . Nigel
Nicolson,
Do nstairs,
Upstairs,
.
arnes,
Past
ed.,
or , 1995), 8 -89.
Spectator,
18 Mar.
1995,
4 .
37. Letter, Times (London), 23 Mar. 1994, 19.
38. Mar
ones, ed., Why Fa es Matter: Essays on Problems o Authenticity
(London, 1992) Anthony ra ton, Forgers and ritics: reativity and Duplicity
in Western
(Princeton,
Scholarship
and Political
Andre
1990)
Lass,
The Meaning-Ful illment
Monuments:
Romantic
o History
Documents
in 19th-century
ech Nationalism, American Ethnologist 15 (1988): 45 -71.
39. ael erubavel, The Death o Memory and theMemory o Death:
Masada
and
as Historical
the Holocaust
no.
Representations,
Metaphors,
45
(1994): 74-75
arry Sch art et al., The Recovery o Masada,
Sociological
Present:
Past
and
Asher
27
Neil
et
een
Silberman,
(198 ): 147- 4
uarterly
or ,
Archaeology, Ideology,and Nationalism in theModern Middle East (Ne
or Revie
o
1989), 87-101 Amos Elon, Politics and Archaeology, Ne
oo s,
40.
ultural
22
Shelagh
14-18.
1994,
Sept.
S uire,
in
Discourse
Meanings,
eatri
and Memories:
Myths
Potter s
La e
District
Literary
(Ph.D.
diss.,
Tourism
as
University
ollege London, 1991), 203-22.
41. Mi e Wallace, Ronald Reagan and the Politics o Memory, Ti un 2,
no. 1 (1987): 128 n arryWills, Reagan s America (Ne
or , 1987), 375.
42.
ames R.
urtis,
The Most
Famous
Fence
in theWorld:
Fact
and Fiction
T ain s Hannibal, Landscape 28, no. 3 (1985): 8-13 William insser,
They eep Mi ing Fact and Fiction inHannibal, Missouri, Smithsonian9, no.
7 (Oct. 1978): 155- 3.
inMar
43.
Hoa ,
uoted
Times
by
imMc ue,
(London),
31 Dec.
Haydn E perts Say Lost Sonatas Are
lever
1993.
44. Stephen Pile, The Past IsAnother Load o Old obblers, Sunday Times
(London), 20 Mar. 1988, A13.
45. Henry
ames, The irthplace (1903), in his Selected Tales (London,
1982), 335-3 , 345.
22
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Fabricating Heritage
4 . Peter Sha
er,Lettice and Lovage (London, 1988), 25
ames, The
irthplace, 304, 307, 325 Alan ennett, WritingHome (London, 1994), 211.
47.
Di
van
ohan
den
inVernon
erentiation,
Ethnocentrism
Dennen,
and
In- roup/Out- roup
et al., eds., The
Sociobiology
Reynolds
o Ethnocentrism
(London, 1987), 1-47 Appleby et al., Telling theTruth, 307.
48. Donald P. Spence, Narrative Truth and Historical Truth (Ne
or ,
1982).
49. ohnFo les, The TrenchLieutenant s Woman (19 9 London, 1987), 87.
50. Marcus
ilson (1980) cited in Timothy Do
Adams, Telling Lies in
Modern American Autobiography ( hapel Hill, N , 1990), 130 Alphine W.
aclyn e reyand lenace Ed all, eds., Memory and History
(Lanham,MD, 1994), 10 .
51. ScottA. Ha ins and Reid Hastie, Hindsight: iased udgmentso Past
Events a tertheOutcomes Are no n, Psychological ulletin 107 (1990): 320
e
erson,in
in Analysis,
onstructions
Freud,
2 8- 9.
52. W. Walter Menninger,
Say, It Isn t So : When Wish ul Thin ing
Obscures Historical Reality, History Ne s40, no. 12 (Dec. 1985): 10-13
.-R.
Staude
(1950)
inDonald
uoted
E. Pol inghorne,
Narrative
ournal o Narrative and Li eHistory 1 (1991): 149.
Far Too oung to e Old,
53. uoted in imMc ue,
Apr. 1995.
and Sel - oncept,
Times (London), 4
radbury, Telling Li e: Some Thoughts on Literary iography,
inEricHomberger and ohn harmley, The Troubled Pace o iography (London,
1988), 131-40.
54.Malcolm
55. Michael
(O ord, 1992), 131-40.
5 . Henry
ames (1913)
The Usurping
Fiction:
Literature
entury
Remember
23
Acts:
Testamentary
Millgate,
ames, Hardy
Tennyson,
uoted inAdeline R. Tintner, Autobiography as
as Hero
onsciousness
in
rey and
e
o
aren
242-44
(1977):
Mista enly,
ro ning,
Ed all,
T entieth
ames s Memoirs,
E.
One
What
Fields,
eds., Memory
annot
and History,
91
Philippe Le eune, On Autobiography, trans. atherine Leary (Minneapolis, 1989),
235.
On
Ehman,
the
retrieval
o
cannot
hat
be
personally
recalled,
see Robert
R.
Temporal Sel -Identity, Southern ournal o Philosophy 12 (1974):
333-41.
57. Salman
Rushdie,
Errata:
Or, Unreliable
(1983), in his ImaginaryHomelands
58.
ames
Fentress,
in Fentress
and
1992), 198.
59. eorge Lipsit , Time Passages:
ulture (Minneapolis, 1990), 1 3.
Narration
inMidnight s
hildren
(London, 1992), 22-25.
hris Wic ham,
Social Memory
(O
ord,
ollectiveMemory and American Popular
23
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All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
David
Lo enthal
uoted inMiles Orvell, The Real Thing: Imitation and Authenticity in
iii.
American ulture ( hapel Hill, N , 1989),
1. David Dennis uoted inRonald Smothers, Issue behind ing Memorial:
Who O ns History Ne
or Times, 1
an. 1995, Al.
0.
2.
igael adin (19 3) uoted inAmos Elon, The Israelis: Founders and Sons
or , 1971), 288 (my emphasis).
(Ne
3. Neil Mac regor, Scholarship and thePublic,
o Arts 139 (1991): 191-94.
ournal o theRoyal Society
4. Al redNorth Whitehead, Symbolism:ItsMeaning and E
1928), 104.
5.
Eli abeth
astor,
Melina
Mercouri:
Dramati ing
Herald Tribune, 3 Feb. 1988.
. eorge Or ell, The Lion and the Unicorn
ulture,
(1941),
Essays (London, 19 8), 109.
24
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ect ( ambridge,
International
in his ollected