Benjamin Shambaugh and the Intellectual Foundations of Public History

by Conard, Rebecca

• ISBN13: 9780877457893
• ISBN10: 0877457891
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-01-01
• Publisher: Univ of Iowa Pr

Summary

Although his name is little known today outside Iowa, during the early part of the twentieth century Benjamin Shambaugh (18711940) was a key figure in the historical profession. Using his distinguished career as a lens, Conard's seminal work is the first book to consider public history as an integral part of the intellectual development of the historical profession as a whole in the United States.Conard draws upon an unpublished, mid-1940s biography by research historian Jacob Swisher to trace the forces that shaped Shambaugh's early years, his administration of the State Historical Society of Iowa, his development of applied history and commonwealth history in the 1910s and 1920s, and the transformations in his thinking and career during the 1930s. Framing this intriguingly interwoven narrative are chapters that contextualize Shambaugh's professional development within the development of the historical profession as a whole in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and assess his career within the post-World War II emergence of the modern public history movement.Shambaugh's career speaks to those who believe in the power of history to engage and inspire local audiences as well as those who believe that historians should apply their knowledge and methods outside the academy in pursuit of the greater public good.

Author Biography

Rebecca Conard is associate professor of history and codirector of the Public History Program at Middle Tennessee State University.

Table of Contents

Foreword and Acknowledgments	ix
Prologue: The Last Dance	1	(6)
From the New History to Applied History	7	(29)
A Gift of Fate	36	(19)
The Politics of Public Institutions	55	(22)
A Deliberate Course: Applied History	77	(24)
The Commonwealth Conference: 1923--1930	101	(19)
A New Deal in the Game of Life	120	(28)
The Emergence of the Modern Public History Movement	148	(33)
Abbreviations and Shortened References	181	(2)
Notes	183	(36)
Collected Works of Benjamin F. Shambaugh, 1893--1940	219	(8)
Bibliography	227	(12)
Index	239