Historians In Public: The Practice Of American History, 1890-1970

by Tyrrell, Ian R.

• ISBN13: 9780226821948
• ISBN10: 0226821943
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-12-01
• Publisher: Univ of Chicago Pr

Summary

From lagging book sales and shrinking job prospects to concerns over the discipline's "narrowness," myriad factors have been cited by historians as evidence that their profession is in decline in America. Ian Tyrrell's Historians in Public shows that this perceived threat to history is recurrent, exaggerated, and often misunderstood. In fact, history has adapted to and influenced the American public more than peopleand often historiansrealize. Tyrrell's elegant history of the practice of American history traces debates, beginning shortly after the profession's emergence in American academia, about history's role in school curricula. He also examines the use of historians in and by the government and whether historians should utilize mass media such as film and radio to influence the general public. As Historians in Public shows, the utility of history is a distinctive theme throughout the history of the discipline, as is the attempt to be responsive to public issues among pressure groups. A superb examination of the practice of American history since the turn of the century, Historians in Public uncovers the often tangled ways history-makers make history-both as artisans and as actors.

Author Biography

Ian Tyrrell is professor in the School of History at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. He is the author of five previous books including Sobering Up: From Temperance to Prohibition in Antebellum America.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	ix
List of Abbreviations	xi
Prologue: Finding History in a Queue	1	(10)
PART 1 THE BROKEN MIRROR
What's Wrong with History? The Contemporary Context	11	(14)
The Great Jeremiad: The History of Historical Specialization	25	(18)
PART 2 HISTORIANS AND THE MASSES, 1890--1960
Searching for the General Reader: Professional Historians, Amateurs, and Nonacademic Audiences, 1890--1939	43	(19)
The Crusade against Pedantry and Its Aftermath: Allan Nevins and Friends, 1930s--1950s	62	(13)
Movies Made History and History Made Movies	75	(14)
Radio Days: How the American Historical Association Sought to Meet a Mass Culture	89	(22)
PART 3 THE PROBLEM OF THE SCHOOLS
Contesting the Retreat from the Schools: Progressives and Teachers before World War II	111	(19)
The Patriots' Call: American History and the School Curriculum in War and Peace	130	(23)
PART 4 PUBLIC HISTORIES
Going Public: Public and Applied History, 1890--1930	153	(17)
History Making in the New Deal State	170	(15)
States of War: World War II, the Cold War, and Remaking History	185	(23)
The State, the Local, and the National: Connecting and Disconnecting with Public Audiences	208	(29)
Epilogue: The Forgotten: From the Fifties to the New Left and Beyond	237	(20)
Notes	257	(72)
Index	329