Public History

The second edition of Public History: A Textbook of Practice offers an updated guide to the many opportunities and challenges that public history practitioners can encounter in the field. Historians can play a dynamic and essential role in contributing to public understanding of the past and those who work in historic preservation in museums and archives in government agencies as consultants as oral historians or who manage crowdsourcing projects need very specific skills. This book links theory and practice and provides students and practitioners with the tools to do public history in a wide range of settings. This new edition reflects how much the field of public history has changed in the past few years with public history now being more established and international. New chapters have therefore been added on the definition history and international scope of public history as well as on specific practices and theories such as historical fictions digital public history and shared authority. Split into four sections this textbook provides approaches methodologies and tools for historians and other public history practitioners to play a bigger role in public debates and public productions of historical interpretations: Part I focuses on the past present and future of public history. Part II explores public history sources and offers an overview of the creation collection management and preservation of materials (archives material culture oral history or historical sites). Part III deals with the different ways in which public history practitioners can produce historical narratives through different media (including texts fictions audio-visual productions exhibitions and performances). Part IV discusses the opportunities and challenges that public history practitioners encounter when working with different collaborators. Whether in public history methods courses or as a resource for practicing public historians this book lays the groundwork for making meaningful connections between historical sources and popular audiences. . Language: English