tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28102666.post6903061037004242863..comments2024-03-28T04:26:30.557-05:00Comments on Boston 1775: The Production of History, Myths, and ToursUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28102666.post-40942209463346329962008-07-17T00:19:00.000-05:002008-07-17T00:19:00.000-05:00We have all been annoyed at shallow, silly, and ju...We have all been annoyed at shallow, silly, and just plain wrong historical interpretation. Last week my wife and I led a group of 20 teachers from around the state of Missouri on a week-long tour of historic sites along the Missouri River from Saint Louis to Kansas City. We met some tremendously knowledgeable folks along the way and learned a lot. <BR/><BR/>But at different places along the way we were also told that 1) slaves used quilt patterns to signal one another along the Underground Railroad, 2) beds were short because people were shorter "in those days," 3) old houses had few closets because you were taxed on doors "in those days," and other similar nonsense.<BR/><BR/>But what are you going to do? As bad as the academic job market is, we are never going to find people with history PhDs manning every historic site. And even if we did they would be useless and boring, we mostly are not trained to do public interpretation. <BR/><BR/>The real point of this regulation is to decrease competition among historic tours and keep prices high. It is classic rent-seeking.Larry Cebulahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16798046652983001155noreply@blogger.com