U.S. history enjoys a renaissance

By Daniel Trotta

NEW YORK (Reuters) - In a high-tech age of instant communication, old-fashioned history is enjoying a renaissance in U.S. popular culture.

History tomes crowd best-seller lists. Historical documentaries fill the airwaves. And people pay thousands of dollars to spend whole weekends with noted historians, much the way rock-n-roll or baseball fans attend fantasy camps with their heroes.

"At all levels of American society there is this hunger to understand the past and relate it to the present," historian David Nasaw said at one such event. "The people who are fascinated reach from the top income bracket to ordinary folk."

Nasaw, who won the 2007 American History Book Prize for his biography of Andrew Carnegie, was a star attraction at a weekend fundraiser for the New York Historical Society, which raised more than $1.5 million from patrons who donated at least

$5,000.

Others holding court were Richard Brookhiser, known for his biographies of the U.S. founders; Josiah Bunting, a biographer of Ulysses Grant; Civil War historian Eric Foner; Jill Lepore, author of a book about the King Philip's War between American Indians and English colonists; and Sean Wilentz, who questioned in a 2006 Rolling Stone article whether George W. Bush was the worst president ever.

"You're sitting next to people who have written the great books in history," said Michael Weisberg, a fund manager with ING Group who attended the event.

So what is the attraction?