Abstract
In 1986, historians in the United States marked the tenth anniversary of the public history movement in that country. During that decade, what was initially considered a new and experimental use of history grew into a widely accepted sub-discipline that seems to be making a lasting imprint on the profession in America, and to a lesser extent in Britain and Europe. This paper describes the evolution of the public history movement in the United States and appraises its impact on the profession.
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Avner Offer, ‘Using the past in Britain: retrospect and prospect’, The Public Historian, VI (1984) pp. 17–20; Gary S. Messinger, ‘The liberal arts in Britain: some lessons for America’, Academe, LXIX (1983) pp. 21–7.
Michael Kraus and Davis D. Joyce, The Writing of American History (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1985), pp. 97–108, 136–47; John Higham, History: Professional Scholarship in America (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1983).
Joan Hoff Wilson, ‘Is the historical profession an “endangered speciesh”?’, The Public Historian, II (1980) pp. 4–9.
Ruth Anna Fisher and William L. Fox, eds, J. Franklin Jameson: A Tribute (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1965); Victor Gondos, Jr, J. Franklin Jameson and the Birth of the National Archives, 1906–1926 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1981).
John T. Marcus, Heaven, Hell and History: A Survey of Man’s Faith in History from Antiquity to the Present (New York: Macmillan, 1967), pp. 233, 235, as quoted in Stephen Vaughn, The Vital Past: Writings on the Uses of History (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1985), p. 4.
Donald M. Dozer, ‘History as Force’, Pacific Historical Review, (November 1965), as quoted in Vaughn, The Vital Past, pp. 266–7.
Arnita Jones, ‘The National Coordinating Committee: Programs and Possibilities,’ The Public Historian, I (1978) pp. 49–52.
Richard G. Hewlett, ‘The practice of history in the Federal Government’, The Public Historian, I (1978) pp. 29–36. The Office of the Chief of Military History, Department of the Army, has produced eighty-three volumes in the series, The United States Army in World War II. Samuel E. Morison, the distinguished American historian and reserve rear admiral during the war, wrote a series of volumes of combat history for the US Navy. The Department of State continued publication of its series of documents on The Foreign Relations of the United States. Wayne D. Rasmussen directed historical research at the Department of Agriculture for almost fifty years and is recognised as the dean of agricultural history in the United States. Richard G. Hewlett and his colleagues at the Atomic Energy Commission completed two volumes of the official history of that agency during the 1960s.
For examples of other applications of public history, see: Ronald W. Johnson, ‘The historian and cultural resource management’, The Public Historian, III (1981) pp. 43–51; Donald H. Ewalt, Jr and Gary R. Kremer, ‘The historian as preservationist’, ibid III (1981) pp. 5–22; Edward Weldon, ‘Archives and the practice of history’, ibid., IV (1982) pp. 49–58; Paul Soifer, ‘The litigation historian: objectivity, responsibility, and sources’, ibid., V (1983) pp. 47–62.
US Congress, House Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce and Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Joint Hearings on Health Effects of Low-Level Radiation, 96 Cong., 1 sess., Serial 96–41 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1979), pp. 71–85; US Congress, House Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, Hearing on Low-Level Radiation Effects on Health, 96 Cong., 1 sess., Serial 96–129 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1979), pp. 7, 11, 157, 164.
History Associates Incorporated, Guide to Archival Collections Relating to Radioactive Fallout from Nuclear Weapon Testing, 4th edition, November 1985. Copies available from History Division, US Department of Energy, Washington, DC.
Margaret Gowing, Britain and Atomic Energy, 1939–1945 (London: Macmillan, 1964); Margaret Gowing, Independence and Deterrence: Britain and Atomic Energy. 1945–1952, Volume I Policy Making, Volume II Policy Execution (London: Macmillan, 1974). The following are examples of federal institutional histories in the United States: Richard G. Hewlett and Oscar E. Anderson, Jr, The New World, 1939–1946, Volume I of A History of the US Atomic Energy Commission (University Park, Pa.: Pennsylvania State University Press. 1962); Richard G. Hewlett and Francis Duncan, Atomic Shield, 1947–1952, Volume II of A History of the US Atomic Energy Commission (University Park, Pa.: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1969); Richard G. Hewlett and Francis Duncan, Nuclear Navy, 1939–1962 University of Chicago Press, 1975); George T. Mazuzan and J. Samuel Walker, Controlling the Atom: The Beginnings of Nuclear Regulation. 1946–1962 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984); Courtney C. Brooks, James M. Grimwood and Lloyd S. Swenson, Jr, Chariots for Apollo: A History of Manned Lunar Spacecraft (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1979).
Paul J. Scheips, moderator, ‘Roundtable: what is a federal historian?’, The Public Historian, II (1980) pp. 84–100; Jack M. Holl, ‘The New Washington Monument: history in the Federal Government’, ibid., VII (1985) pp. 9–20.
Richard G. Hewlett, ‘Government history: writing from the inside’, in Frank B. Evans and Harold T. Pinkett, eds, Research in the Administration of Public Policy (Washington, DC: Howard University Press, 1975).
George O. Kent, ‘Clio the tyrant: historical analogies and the meaning of history’, in Vaughn, The Vital Past, pp. 302–10; Otis L. Graham, ‘Uses and misuses of history: roles in policy making’, The Public Historian, V (1983) pp. 5–19; Peter N. Stearns, ‘History and policy analysis: toward maturity,’ ibid., IV (1983) pp. 5–29.
Ernest R. May, ‘Lessons of the Past’: The Use and Misuse of History in America (New York: Oxford University Press, 1973).
Anna K. Nelson, ‘History without historians,’ in American Historical Association, AHA Newsletter, XVI (February 1978).
George David Smith and Laurence E. Steadman, ‘Present value of corporate history’, Harvard Business Review, LIX (1981) pp. 164–73.
Society for History in the Federal Government, Principles and Standards for Federal Historical Programs, reprinted in The Public Historian, VIII (1986) pp. 60–3. Martin Reuss, ‘Federal Historians: Ethics and Responsibility in the Bureaucracy,’ ibid., pp. 13–20.
J. Morgan Kousser, ‘Are expert witnesses whores? Reflections on objectivity in scholarship and expert witnessing’, The Public Historian, VI (1984) pp. 5–11.
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© 1988 Nicolaas A. Rupke
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Hewlett, R. (1988). Public History in the United States: a Retrospective Appraisal. In: Rupke, N.A. (eds) Science, Politics and the Public Good. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-09514-8_12
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