Public History An Introduction from Theory to Application

by Koslow, Jennifer Lisa

• ISBN13: 9781119146742
• ISBN10: 1119146747
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2021-03-03
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Summary

PUBLIC HISTORY

PROVIDES A BACKGROUND IN THE HISTORY, PRINCIPLES, AND PRACTICES OF THE FIELD OF PUBLIC HISTORY

Public History: An Introduction from Theory to Application is the first text of its kind to offer both historical background on the ways in which historians have collected, preserved, and interpreted history with and for public audiences in the United States since the nineteenth century to the present and instruction on current practices of public history. This book helps us recognize and critically evaluate how, why, where, and who produces history in public settings.

This unique textbook provides a foundation for students advancing to a career in the types of spaces–museums, historic sites, heritage tourism, and archives–that require an understanding of public history. It offers a review of the various types of methodologies that are commonly employed including oral history and digital history. The author also explores issues of monuments and memory upon which public historians are increasingly called to comment. Lastly, the textbook includes a section on questions of ethics that public historians must face in their profession. This important book:

Contains a synthetic history on the significant individuals and events associated with museums, historic preservation, archives, and oral history.

Includes exercises for putting theory into practice

Designed to help us uncover hidden histories, construct interpretations, create a sense of place, and negotiate contested memories

Offers an ideal resource for students set on working in museums, historic sites, heritage tourism, and more

Written for students, Public History: An Introduction from Theory to Application offers in one comprehensive volume a guide to an understanding of the fundamentals of public history in the United States.

Author Biography

Jennifer Lisa Koslow is an Associate Professor of History at Florida State University, where she directs its Historical Administration and Public History program. She is the author of Cultivating Health: Los Angeles Women and Public Health Reform (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2009) and has worked to produce several consequential scholarly products of historical research that foster community engagement, including a Historic American Landscapes Survey (National Park Service Program) for the Smokey Hollow Community of Tallahassee, Florida.

Table of Contents

Preface

Chapter 1: Defining Public History

Chapter 2: Exhibiting History

Chapter 3: Preserving Historic Sites and Spaces

Chapter 4: Managing Archives and Historical Records

Chapter 5: Marking History

Chapter 6: Recording Memory as History

Chapter 7: Digitizing History

Chapter 8: Practicing Ethical History