The Public Historian - the Development of the Subjects and Contributions of the Public Historian

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Journal Review

“The Public Historian”

The Development of the Subjects and Contributions of The Public Historian

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Stephen Blanchette

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HIS 450 Public History

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Faculty of Social Sciences

Department of History

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Winter Semester 2016

        In the thirty eight years since “The Public Historian” was conceived it has served to provide a plethora of different articles of analysis and critique into the many various realms of Public History, and is now generally considered the definitive voice of the Public History profession. Due to the long history of the journal a large amount of authors have been able to make contributions in regards to the responsibilities and focusses of Public History and therefore many different perspectives and opinions have been taken into account. The journal is the official publication of the National Council on Public History and is published by University of California Press in Berkeley California. The National Council on Public History has kept the format of the quarterly journal almost completely the same over its thirty eight years of existence, as it almost exclusively publishes the results of scholarly research and case studies. Areas such as: public policy and policy analysis, federal state and local history, historic preservation, oral history, museum and historical administration, documentation and information services, corporate biography and Public History education take up the main attention of the journal. However some authors like Robert Kelley had a more broad focus. When he wrote his article in the very first volume of The Public Historian titled: “Public History: Its Origins, Natures and Prospects” he did not pick one area or issue to cover but instead wrote a piece that looked further into what public history is meant to accomplish and what a public historian is supposed to be. At the very beginning of his article and ultimately the beginning of The Public Historian journal Kelley defines public history:

        In its simplest meaning, Public History refers to the employment of historians and the historical method outside of academia: in government, private corporations, the media, historical societies and museums, even in private practice. Public Historians are at work whenever, in their professional capacity, they are part of the public process. An issue needs to be resolved, a policy must be formed, the use of a resource or the direction of an activity must be more effectively planned-and an historian is called upon to bring in the dimension of time: this is Public History.^[1]

        It is not surprising that the first article of analysis printed in this journal sets out to define the parameters of Public History and its origins as these are the foundations of practically every other article that follows. But Kelley doesn’t just discuss the tenants or nature of public history, he also sets out to discuss the application of public history in non-academic circles and how an almost new identity is necessary to fully realize the ability of the public historian. Kelley writes: “In fact, historians have a number of qualities which are essential to organizations of all kinds. They should think of themselves, Bruser observes, as specialists in information management”^[2] and not just as historians themselves. Nevertheless this is just one, although it may be the first, of dozens of articles published over the 38 years this journal has been in publication and even though it gives a strong introduction into the field and some of its challenges it still makes up a small portion of this journal’s impact on public history as a whole. As this is a review of the journal archive in its entirety, and not of individual articles, I will be discussing more broadly to what extent this journal contributes to and impacts the public history profession as well as the subjects covered in its articles and analysis.

        Although this journal does cover a variety of public history issues and areas there are several subjects that get a greater focus then many others. There is a repetition or a trend which emerges between the separate volumes and the articles they include. This trend can be observed through a higher concentration of articles written about three particular issues in general: public historians’ role within government, public historians’ role within the private sphere and what it is to be a public historian and the objectives of the profession. In the earlier publications of the journal from 1978 to roughly 1990 many articles pertain solely to the role of the public historian or similarly to the function public history serves in society. In Ronald J Grele’s article “Whose Public? Whose History? What’s the Goal of a Public Historian?” (Published as part of the third volume of the journal) the beginnings of the profession as well as the importance and goals of public history are discussed. This article and several others published during the journals first decade have a similar focus on the origins of public history or how public history came to be. Other articles that belong within this trend are: “Archives and the Practice of Public History”, “Transitions to Public History”, “Public History: its Origins, Nature and Prospects” as well as almost all the articles in Vol. 9 No. 3 as this publication was dedicated solely to public history and planning a curriculum around this new field. One article published in the fifth volume of the journal should also be included in this pattern as it also includes much subject matter on public history and its origins however this article: “The Tradition of Public History in Canada” takes into account a different national perspective then any of the others and therefore fits into the trend differently. This article is the only one contained within the journal that focusses on Canadian public history and is quite an anomaly in this way as only one or two other articles throughout the journals whole publication pertain to any other nation besides the US. This American-Centric perspective is understandable due to the journal being published in the US and owing the majority of its articles to American authors and historians but is nevertheless a hindrance regarding this journals reflection of public history as a whole. Therefore this journal doesn’t reflect a global perspective on public history but more or less and American one. Despite this one downfall of the journal most of the subjects covered, including the articles focussing on the development of the profession, give great insight into the evolution of public history and its ever increasing importance to governmental and private spheres.

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