On Doing Local History

by Carol Kammen

For over thirty years, Carol Kammen s On Doing Local History has been a valuable guide to professional and amateur historians alike. First published in 1986, revised in 2003, this book offers not only discussion of practical matters, but also a deeper reflection on local, public history, what it means, and why it is done. It is used in classrooms and found on the shelves of local historians across the U.S. The third edition features: .Updates to chapters that focus on the current concerns and situation of local historians .A new chapter on how the field of history cooperates with other arts .A new chapter on writing a congregational history .Updated references With the same passion (and now even more experience) that drove her to write the first edition, Kammen has brought her seminal work into today s context for the next generation of local historians. The new edition ensures that this classic will continue to move anyone interested in public history towards a better understanding of why they do what they do and how it benefits their communities.

Genres: History, Museums, Nonfiction

196 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1986

Reviews

[Vanessa Swepson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh. Local history is wild

[Kristine Morris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having been working on a local history project for several years now, this book validated many of the things I've been doing. Jotted down many ideas too.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Generally, an excellent resource for academic, public history, and what I'll term "free-lance historians." In writing this work, Kammen clearly feels that she has lived under her academic Historian husband's shadow and has clearly taken heat for being what she refers to as an 'amateur' historian. This work is her soap box, both to rant at professional historians for how they treat and view those historians working outside of academia, and (perhaps most interestingly) to chide her fellow 'amateur' historians how to stop persisting in activities and research methods that gives them a 'bad rap', so to speak. The tension here is clearly present, and interesting!

[Rick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kammen’s book is an introduction to the field of local history: mostly basic stuff, with an interesting discussion of the requirement for footnotes in writing. Defined local history as the study of a narrow geographical area using a wide lens of investigation. Kammen had a wonderful attitude toward her subject, welcoming all skill sets from professional to amateur into the field…viz. local history is a big tent. Noted the three major periods when interest in local history advanced: the 1840s, the 1876 Centennial years, and the WPA Depression period.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just finished this for a project I'm doing for one of my classes and interestingly enough, I learned a lot from Kammen. She presents the how's and why's in a conversational style and a lot of the points she discusses are spot on with regards to local history societies as a whole. She also gives a lot of examples and techniques on the topic, which I also found extremely helpful.