What is Public History? A Slam Poem Ode by an "Intro to PH" Undergraduate
Every time I teach Intro to Public History, we begin the semester with two sets of readings. One set examines public history as it is situated within: the history of the national parks the discipline of history the context of efforts to amplify invisible, untended or uncomfortable histories the context of ordinary people's interests and engagements with the past These go over very well. The other set? Classics like Becker's "Everyman His Own Historian," David Lowenthal's meditation on the benefits and burdens of the past, Pierre Nora's famous (and famously dense) discussion of lieux de memoire, "sites" both literal and metaphorical that serve as bridges between history and memory and as anchors of identity in a rapidly changing and homogenizing world. These go over terribly. And I assign them anyway. This semester, I made my students do a reading response to these readings. Some of them were fabulous. Some of them, shall w