The Presence of the Past: Popular Uses of History in American Life Book

This book ended up depressing me, sad to say. The authors did a study of how Americans relate to the past, using a phone survey. This was back in the early 90s, when everyone was talking about how people in this country don't know their own history, and our students aren't learning anything, and crisis crisis. So this phone survey was supposed to show that people were actually very connected with the past after all. But what it actually seems to show is that people are fine with history as long as it is their own personal history or the history of their family or ethnic group. And really, they are only interested in that history as long as it conforms with what they already think they know and doesn't challenge any of their preconceived notions. Almost everyone hates the study of history in school, because they find it boring and they know they are being fed this party-line manifest destiny America rules storyline. But the solution they want doesn't seem to be a broader history; they seem to want to only have to study material that they can clearly see is directly related to their own life stories.
I'm generalizing a bit, but as a guy who is planning on having a job in a history field, this didn't make it sound easy to get people interested in history. And I take issue with the authors' decision to include activities like 'sharing photographs with family' as something that shows people are connected with 'the past'. To me that could show a past-connection, but it could also just show that people love their families and sharing pictures helps them maintain relationships.