This
week’s readings focused on trying to define what public history is, as well as
discussing the role of museums in the field of public history.
Mike
Wallace wrote Mickey Mouse History and
Other Essays on American Memory. He
gives the reader an introduction that explores the value of history in a modern
society, and how a society cannot extract itself from its past. “And what of our era? How stands the balance between memory and
forgetting? …. We have constructed vast
numbers of museums (and halls of fame) that explore an astonishing range of
subjects and localities.” (page X) He
goes on to talk about how Civil War reenactments are popular, and how the
reenactors pick a specific person from that battle to personify for the benefit
of the audience.
The
author continues by discussing some of the uses of history, and why is it
considered important to preserve it. He
talked about how museums are viewed as a place for the audience to view history;
however that history is “irrelevant to present-day concerns.” (page 25) The museum structure presents history in a
way that allows the audience to “imagine alternative social orders – past or
future.” (page 25) James Gardner and Peter LaPaglia wrote Public History: Essays from the Field. The authors begin their book by discussing the establishment of the field of public history in the 1970s. “Before the 1970s, graduate of traditional academic history programs working in public historical agencies sometimes experienced a sense of alienation from or found little welcome in the academically oriented professional historical associations.” (page 29) The historians who felt alienated would sometimes join the American Association for State and Local History, or AASLH, where they felt more welcome given the type of history that they wanted to pursue.
We also had some online readings, including reading the Wikipedia page on public history. The website defined public history as “public history proves resistant to being precisely defined. Three key elements often emerge from the discourse of those who identify themselves as public historians.” The website continues to define the three elements of public history as the use of the methods of the historical discipline, with an emphasis on the usefulness of historical knowledge in some way that goes beyond purely academic or antiquarian purposes, as well as an emphasis on professional training and practice.
The website also includes a list of universities that provide a master degree in public history, as well as links for the reader to continue their research into the field of public history.
Our readings concluded with a speech given by Carl Becker, the president of the American Historical Association in 1931. His speech was titled Everyman His Own Historian, and the speech talked about how every person lived in a time of history, which made every person a historian. They may not realize that they were living history, but it was the job of the association to acknowledge that there were different types of history. The academic type that everyone was taught might not be the only type of history that should be studied.
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