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Introduction to Public History: Interpreting the Past, Engaging Audiences
Introduction to Public History: Interpreting the Past, Engaging Audiences is a brief foundational textbook for public history. It is organized around the questions and ethical dilemmas that drive public history in a variety of settings, from local community-based projects to international case studies. This book is designed for use in undergraduate and graduate classrooms with future public historians, teachers, and consumers of history in mind.
The authors are practicing public historians who teach history and public history to a mix of undergraduate and graduate students at universities across the United States and in international contexts. This book is based on original research and the authors' first-hand experiences, offering a fresh perspective on the dynamic field of public history based on a decade of consultation with public history educators about what they needed in an introductory textbook. Each chapter introduces a concept or common practice to students, highlighting key terms for student review and for instructor assessment of student learning. The body of each chapter introduces theories, and basic conceptual building blocks intermixed with case studies to illustrate these points. Footnotes credit sources but also serve as breadcrumbs for instructors who might like to assign more in-depth reading for more advanced students or for the purposes of lecture development. Each chapter ends with suggestions for activities that the authors have tried with their own students and suggested readings, books, and websites that can deepen student exposure to the topic.
The authors are practicing public historians who teach history and public history to a mix of undergraduate and graduate students at universities across the United States and in international contexts. This book is based on original research and the authors' first-hand experiences, offering a fresh perspective on the dynamic field of public history based on a decade of consultation with public history educators about what they needed in an introductory textbook. Each chapter introduces a concept or common practice to students, highlighting key terms for student review and for instructor assessment of student learning. The body of each chapter introduces theories, and basic conceptual building blocks intermixed with case studies to illustrate these points. Footnotes credit sources but also serve as breadcrumbs for instructors who might like to assign more in-depth reading for more advanced students or for the purposes of lecture development. Each chapter ends with suggestions for activities that the authors have tried with their own students and suggested readings, books, and websites that can deepen student exposure to the topic.
230 pages, ebook
Published March 6, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
July 8, 2019
Begun as a discussion groups at the 2010 National Council on Public History conference and based on the best practices of that organisation the book is an excellent textbook for undergraduate students. The book lays out public history methods, systemic practices, and valuable case studies in each chapter. Short and readable it would make a great spine for any public history course.
October 12, 2023
read for class
July 15, 2017
Nice succinct intro text, def needs to be paired with further readings if being used in class- fortunately, there are excellent recommendations. Also love the suggestions for activities.
June 22, 2022
Read this book for a class and it was genuinely an interesting read.
February 5, 2020
Even thirty-five years after we first heard about it, public history remains poorly understood, awkwardly defined and generally little known. For that reason, although the seasoned historian might gawk at its title, Introduction to Public History is a timely contribution, one that aims at providing a foundational text that supports professional practice in bringing research insights at people’s own doorsteps.
In some 180 pages, Lyon, Nix and Shrum offer myriad of ideas for public historians, including case studies and teaching resources. They begin in by linking very explicitly public history to education as way of an analogy. Pages 16-17 indeed suggest didactic activities to implement in and out of the classroom, which may be useful for both the teaching historian and the practicing historian.
Chapter 2 makes the case of history as a practice, arguing that, “When people start doing history instead of simply learning history, they quickly realize that history is not a tidy narrative waiting for a student to memorize.” (p23). Afterwards, they go through an overview of the methods historians use in an attempt to illustrate what it is to think historically. Different lenses such as cause and effect, change and continuity, and turning points are briefly explained here, but more importantly, the text encourages readers to look around as they develop this type of thinking.
While Chapter 3 focuses on a practical case, it makes a significant contribution to the study of oral sources. By using the example of a project called Baltimore ’68, it shows how an exhibition of newspapers talking about a particular event can be used as a prompt for the public to tell their own stories as narrators. “Experients”, they explain, “become narrators when they formally record oral history from their perspective […] Given the interview format, they might be called interviewees, or in research terms they may be called research subjects […] narrator emphasizes the agency one has in the telling of his or her own memories of the past” (p.39).
And yet, what I am most grateful for is, I confess, putting a name to a method I have always used but not without having some feeling of guilt for violating traditional wisdom in the practice of interviewing. It is called ‘Walking and Talking’ as, just like many encounters with interviewees, it involves a different approach to producing oral narrative recordings. They explain on page 54, “Going into a woman’s home to conduct a traditional interview, sitting down with an expert conducting an interview with an informant or human subject, would not encourage asylum seeking women to develop trust or feel safe revealing the kind of information [needed].” Borrowing O’Neill’s technique*, they explain how ‘walking interviews’ in particular spaces can help individuals to feel safer and more empowered while creating their narratives. O’Neill herself puts it, what emerges through the process is “a relational, sensuous, kinaesthetic, democratic and participatory process of collaborative co-production leading to ‘connection’, ‘attunement’ and understanding’”**. (p.152) Of course, this method is helpful not only when involving ‘vulnerable’ individuals, and certainly not only for oral history research.
In addition, we are given recommendations for before, during and after the interview, through detailed ‘how to’ guidelines. Similarly, they provide examples of how to integrate objects into narratives, because “[a]rt has a fantastic way of challenging the way we see the world” (p53), and argument I agree with, because after an aesthetic experience we go back to the world and judge it with a whole new set of parameters. It is interesting, though, that while rich methodological insights for oral historians are contained mostly in Chapter 3, they do not constitute a chapter of its own – this being a book on public history, not oral history. Yet, chapters 2 and 3 together are, perhaps, the highlight of the book.
As the second half of the book unfolds, we are given more practical examples about how put together collections and set exhibitions. One of the examples is the Museum of Memory and Human Rights, at Santiago de Chile, which despite criticisms for being ‘too leftist’, is inspiring for the way resources and technologies are used in explaining complex processes in an accessible way as to make the visitors approach that historical time as if the had lived it themselves.
Introduction to Public History is an engaging must-read book which, although seemingly intended for students of public history, will also be useful for lecturers, professional public historians and oral historians.
* Maggie O’Neill and Phil Hubbard, “Walking, Sensing, Belonging: Ethno-mimesis as Performative Praxis,” Visual Studies 25:1 (2010): 46-58.
** Maggie O’Neill. Asylum, migration and community. Bristol: Policy Press, 2010.
Ricardo Ayala, PhD
Ghent University
Belgium
In some 180 pages, Lyon, Nix and Shrum offer myriad of ideas for public historians, including case studies and teaching resources. They begin in by linking very explicitly public history to education as way of an analogy. Pages 16-17 indeed suggest didactic activities to implement in and out of the classroom, which may be useful for both the teaching historian and the practicing historian.
Chapter 2 makes the case of history as a practice, arguing that, “When people start doing history instead of simply learning history, they quickly realize that history is not a tidy narrative waiting for a student to memorize.” (p23). Afterwards, they go through an overview of the methods historians use in an attempt to illustrate what it is to think historically. Different lenses such as cause and effect, change and continuity, and turning points are briefly explained here, but more importantly, the text encourages readers to look around as they develop this type of thinking.
While Chapter 3 focuses on a practical case, it makes a significant contribution to the study of oral sources. By using the example of a project called Baltimore ’68, it shows how an exhibition of newspapers talking about a particular event can be used as a prompt for the public to tell their own stories as narrators. “Experients”, they explain, “become narrators when they formally record oral history from their perspective […] Given the interview format, they might be called interviewees, or in research terms they may be called research subjects […] narrator emphasizes the agency one has in the telling of his or her own memories of the past” (p.39).
And yet, what I am most grateful for is, I confess, putting a name to a method I have always used but not without having some feeling of guilt for violating traditional wisdom in the practice of interviewing. It is called ‘Walking and Talking’ as, just like many encounters with interviewees, it involves a different approach to producing oral narrative recordings. They explain on page 54, “Going into a woman’s home to conduct a traditional interview, sitting down with an expert conducting an interview with an informant or human subject, would not encourage asylum seeking women to develop trust or feel safe revealing the kind of information [needed].” Borrowing O’Neill’s technique*, they explain how ‘walking interviews’ in particular spaces can help individuals to feel safer and more empowered while creating their narratives. O’Neill herself puts it, what emerges through the process is “a relational, sensuous, kinaesthetic, democratic and participatory process of collaborative co-production leading to ‘connection’, ‘attunement’ and understanding’”**. (p.152) Of course, this method is helpful not only when involving ‘vulnerable’ individuals, and certainly not only for oral history research.
In addition, we are given recommendations for before, during and after the interview, through detailed ‘how to’ guidelines. Similarly, they provide examples of how to integrate objects into narratives, because “[a]rt has a fantastic way of challenging the way we see the world” (p53), and argument I agree with, because after an aesthetic experience we go back to the world and judge it with a whole new set of parameters. It is interesting, though, that while rich methodological insights for oral historians are contained mostly in Chapter 3, they do not constitute a chapter of its own – this being a book on public history, not oral history. Yet, chapters 2 and 3 together are, perhaps, the highlight of the book.
As the second half of the book unfolds, we are given more practical examples about how put together collections and set exhibitions. One of the examples is the Museum of Memory and Human Rights, at Santiago de Chile, which despite criticisms for being ‘too leftist’, is inspiring for the way resources and technologies are used in explaining complex processes in an accessible way as to make the visitors approach that historical time as if the had lived it themselves.
Introduction to Public History is an engaging must-read book which, although seemingly intended for students of public history, will also be useful for lecturers, professional public historians and oral historians.
* Maggie O’Neill and Phil Hubbard, “Walking, Sensing, Belonging: Ethno-mimesis as Performative Praxis,” Visual Studies 25:1 (2010): 46-58.
** Maggie O’Neill. Asylum, migration and community. Bristol: Policy Press, 2010.
Ricardo Ayala, PhD
Ghent University
Belgium
February 24, 2022
This is a foundational text for students and historians who are considering a career or job opportunity in public history. This book explores topics on how public history museums and exhibits are created, organized, and presented to the general public, as well as reactions and responses by their audiences.
The book also discusses the idea of thinking outside the box to create interactive and immersive exhibits where the audience plays a role in the museum tours. I have been to some of these types of exhibits and they can leave an impression that makes you think long after you've left the museum/exhibit.
This is a textbook so it offers key terms and ideas of activities to put into practice, as well as plenty of resources for further studies.
The book also discusses the idea of thinking outside the box to create interactive and immersive exhibits where the audience plays a role in the museum tours. I have been to some of these types of exhibits and they can leave an impression that makes you think long after you've left the museum/exhibit.
This is a textbook so it offers key terms and ideas of activities to put into practice, as well as plenty of resources for further studies.
April 26, 2019
4.5 stars Full disclosure: I used this book as a text book for an Intro to Public class I co-taught. The last time I taught the class, it was a struggle to organize all the articles for the class, so this book was incredibly helpful in giving me a framework to follow for my class. It was very readable and had a lot of examples that were very helpful. I think the only issue I had was that I would want more concrete examples of what public historians do with exhibits, collections, etc. Otherwise an excellent textbook and a good read for public historians!
August 4, 2019
This book presents the thesis that public history is professional history, but taught to a public audience. Professional history, furthermore, is characterized not by facts, but by historical methods that involve critical thinking towards the past and the present that are broadly applicable in everyday life (see Chapter 4). Chapter 7, which focuses on different ways public historians interpret the past, is of particular interest.
April 24, 2018
Having read this for a class on Public History, this book offered a good overview of the field of Public History, and how best a Historian can work to ensure that History can meet the public in a way that isn't intimidating, biased, or filled with wordy language.
It provides some real-world examples as well.
It provides some real-world examples as well.
October 5, 2017
More accurately a 4.5
I wish this existed a year and half ago when I first started studying Public History, but it's still a fantastic introduction to the field. Great recommendations for further reading, and great case-studies to illustrate the theoretical foundations of the topics discussed.
I wish this existed a year and half ago when I first started studying Public History, but it's still a fantastic introduction to the field. Great recommendations for further reading, and great case-studies to illustrate the theoretical foundations of the topics discussed.
July 1, 2025
Somehow, I didn’t read this book in graduate school. However, now that I am about to teach a university level public history course, I knew I needed a good intro text. It is concise, which is appreciated. However, the further reading sections will come in handy to fully flesh out the topics.
December 17, 2025
Foundational but repetitive
May 13, 2025
This text is a well-rounded introduction to public history that has aged well, aside from a few outdated websites and resource suggestions.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews