Doing Public History: A Look at the How, but Especially the Why

Public geographies: taking stock

“…Many of these sentiments and ideas have also been rippling throughout the academy in recent years (see Attwood, 2007), with particular growth in the disciplines of anthropology, history and archaeology. For example, public history is underpinned by a desire for the practical application of history, working for and with the public, engaging the public while also attempting to draw them into the writing of history (see Kelley, 1978;Ryant, 1986;Recken, 1993;Scarpino, 1994;Champion, 2003). It is argued that 'what differentiates public history from academic history is its focus on audience' (Recken, 1993: 188), or, as Scarpino suggests, 'the primary difference between public and academic history is in the area of communication -in the audiences that we attempt to reach and in the products that we use to convey our scholarship to those audiences' (Scarpino, 1994).…”