Investigating Public History
‘Public History’ is an American import – both the term and ‘discipline’ had gained significant traction before hitting our own shores some twenty-five years ago. Now, syllabuses for postgraduate degrees in the United Kingdom promise a ‘unique qualification for those wishing to pursue a career in public history, working in the heritage sector, in broadcasting or in film, in museums or in journalism’.
In terms of history as ‘the study of past events, particularly in human affairs’, ‘public history’ would appear to be the sexy new kid on the block and a far departure from the traditional image of the academic historian. But what exactly is it, why are universities so keen to take ownership and apparently ‘shoehorn’ it into the academic arena, and does it apply to family history anyway?
Like the ambiguous nature of history itself, public history is problematic to definitively define. It does not come neatly boxed and labelled, in fact it is quite the opposite. In overly simple terms it is perhaps helpful to think of it as wherever there is a record of humans and/or human activity there is the potential for ‘public history’. A global phenomenon, not the property of a privileged few but transcending race and religion, equally relevant to every individual on
