Time Travel: Tourism and the Rise of the Living History Museum in Mid-Twentieth Century Canada by Alan Gordon (review)

Time Travel is an important book that provides keen insights in the understanding of the emergence of living history museums in mid-twentieth century Canada. But this volume is much more. Alan Gordon integrates the scholarly literature on museology, historiography, tourism, and heritage studies in framing his arguments. While the focus is clearly on the history of living history museums in Canada, much of what is presented in this book has clear application to the living history museum movement and the development of historical museums in the Great Plains as well.

Gordon notes early in his analysis that living history museums have always treaded the fine line between being a site for education and one for entertainment. He stresses that Time Travel strives to investigate the growth of Canada's living history museums from the 1930s into the end of the 1970s. Living history museums drew praise from educators and the travel industry for helping break down the standard criticism of historical museums as being too static; living history museums were more visitor-centered and more experiential, and provided new insights into historical education. However, Gordon also acknowledges the decline in popular and scholarly standing of living history museums by the end of the 1980s.

Gordon provides a valuable historical perspective on the development of the precursors to the Canadian living history museums of the mid–twentieth century. He traces the history of the open-air museums of innovations such as Skansen in Stockholm in the late nineteenth century to the living historical museums of the Upper Canada Village and other Canadian museums in the 1960s and 1970s.

Gordon makes the case that the initial success of the popularity of living history museums was a result of the convergence of a number of factors of the time. He makes the point that those who led the development of living history museums had a deep faith in the value and "truth" of history. They believed that living history was a more effective and powerful way of learning history than reading history. This was combined with the post– World War II goal of preserving the past for future generations—especially, the history of the pioneers and settlers.

In a masterful way, Gordon guides the reader through some of the intellectual debates that shaped the making of the living history museum movement. He calls attention to the stated goal of presenting the "authentic" as a dominant value, but this goal became a great source of conflict when scholars began to point out the unpleasant side of history and those who were left out of the dominant narrative. This led to serious challenges to the stories being told at living history museums and the need to revise and expand the interpretation with broader community involvement.

Perhaps one of the richest contributions to the study of the living history museums movement is Gordon's analysis of the role that tourism played in the rise of this movement. Conflicts eventually developed between with the original idealized view of history at these museums and the realities of a more complex diverse society. Criticisms arose, too, about new "Disneyfied" sensory experiences at these museums that were designed to compete with theme parks, television, and movies.

Time Travel is a most welcome addition to the scholarship of museum studies. The analysis extends well beyond this period in Canada. It does call for a follow-up volume to trace how living history museums are reimagining their mission, scholarly role, and visitor experience today. Hopefully, Gordon will take up this challenge.