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How do lay individuals reconstruct, appropriate or resist culturally sanctioned narratives about their nation's past? The current study examined this question through an open‐ended survey administered to a US sample, stratified by age and gender (N = 399). We identified three major historical narratives that were popular among Americans. Specifically, we identified positive narratives of the nation's progress over time and glorifying narratives of American exceptionalism, alongside a popular counter‐narrative that was critical of the nation as reproducing ongoing cycles of injustice. Representations of national origins were significantly more salient for the narratives of Progress and Glorification, while more recent and lived events were salient for Critical narratives. Progress and Critical narratives were both associated with a constructive orientation to national identity, while Glorifying narratives were associated with blind patriotism. Critical and Glorifying narratives were consistently opposed in their associated political attitudes and in their patterns of endorsement across party affiliations. Overall, it appeared that narratives of progress were most popular and least polarised. We discuss the implications of these findings through the perspective that narratives provide dynamic content for identity construction as well as the means for articulating resistance to hegemony within specific historical and political contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many empirical studies have demonstrated that some indigenous technologies in the Americas survived for a long time after European colonization. Still, a narrative of the quick replacement of “Stone Age” indigenous technologies by more efficient European technologies continues to be the main model to explain postcontact technological change. I argue in this article that an important reason for the perseverance of this model is its clear narrative quality. I discuss alternative narrative strategies and examine in detail the case of Xaltocan, Mexico, where indigenous people resumed and intensified chipped-stone tool production and use after the Spanish conquest, instead of adopting steel knives. I argue that this trend was related to access to the means of production rather than to European notions of “practicality.” This model invites us to rewrite histories of postconquest technological change without assuming a quick replacement of indigenous tools and technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The past we associate with ourselves, "Others," and particular spaces--be they historical sites or global communities--is central to the study of current global transformative cultural processes. Thus, investigating the uses and narratives of history among tourists and their local "hosts," we might gain important insights into how we try to make sense of the ever-changing present and our place in it. One way of doing so would be to apply the analytical terminology discerned in this article. Taking a number of studies as a point of departure, the article suggests a way of "mapping" the uses and narratives of history in international heritage tourism contexts. The proposed typology should not be conceived as static, but rather as a conceptual attempt to assist public historians as they reflect upon the dynamics of heritage-tourism contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explored how U.S. middle school students made sense of a variety of topics from world history. I conducted qualitative, task-based, small group interviews with 66 sixth and seventh grade students enrolled in world history courses. Findings indicated that students assimilated new information from world history to their prior knowledge of U.S. history, often mixing content knowledge from U.S. history into their understanding of world history. They also used a narrative theme of progress to structure world history knowledge and centered historical narratives on individuals rather than larger social/political circumstances. Thus, narratives that served as tools in students' reasoning about U.S. history were found to wield significant influence over their understanding of world history topics. These findings suggest that conceptual changes are necessary for students to develop more complete and nuanced historical understanding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]