NEW YORK UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY
INTRODUCTION TO PUBLIC HISTORY I
HIST GA1750
FALL 2014
PETER J. WOSH
pw1@nyu.edu
(212) 998-8601
Office Hours: Thursdays, 2-6
Purpose
Provide an introductory overview to the public history field in its diverse venues and
manifestations.
Consider the ways in which historians have engaged various audiences, with particular
emphasis on public constructions of history.
Dissect such major theoretical constructs in the field as memory, heritage, community,
and commemoration.
Discuss current issues, trends, and theories that continue to change the nature of public
history.
Gain a basic understanding of the issues surrounding such public history work as
museum exhibits, house and site interpretations, historical societies, historic preservation, and
digital projects.
Examine sites where public history work occurs.
Introduce such public history methodologies as oral history, material culture, and archival
documentation that historians use to communicate their work.
Develop a sense of basic legal and ethical issues facing public historians who work
outside academia.
Supplement the theoretical component of the course with a variety of assignments that
analyze the ways in which public historians carry out their work and their responsibilities.
Assignments:
Write a four-page response to the President’s House Case Study that responds to the
following two questions raised by Charlene Mires in Section 9: “What lessons does the
President’s House case offer for public historians? How might these be applied to the practice of
public history in the future?” Due: September 17.
Select a memorial that you find particularly interesting and prepare a three-four page
paper that discusses its significance and contextualizes it within the history of memorialization.
Due: October 1.
Write a popularly accessible essay on a particular place or space that has historical
significance for you. It may be a building, an institution, a town, a neighborhood, or any place
(actual or virtual) that you find especially evocative and historically interesting. 500 words.
Due: October 15.
Discuss a particular historic house, historical site, or “private history museum,” focusing
on its history, major accomplishments, effectiveness, issues, and programming challenges. Write
a four-five page paper that critically analyzes the site and contains some constructive suggestions
for future directions. Due: November 5.
Prepare a presentation around a particular holiday or celebration, as assigned through our
collaboration with the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation. Group assignments
distributed on October 15. Final project and public presentation on: December 17.
Assignment Time Line:
September 17 -- Write a four-page response to the President’s House Case Study that responds
to the following two questions raised by Charlene Mires in Section 9: “What lessons does the
President’s House case offer for public historians? How might these be applied to the practice of
public history in the future?”
October 1 – Select a memorial that you find particularly interesting and prepare a three-four
page paper that discusses its significance and contextualizes it within the history of
memorialization.
October 15 – Write a popularly accessible essay on a particular place or space that has historical
significance for you. It may be a building, an institution, a town, a neighborhood, or any place
(actual or virtual) that you find especially evocative and historically interesting. 500 words.
November 5 – Discuss a particular historic house, historical site, or “private history museum,”
focusing on its history, major accomplishments, effectiveness, issues, and programming
challenges. Write a four-five page paper that critically analyzes the site and contains some
constructive suggestions for future directions.
December 17 – Final project and public presentations due.
Readings:
Most of the class readings are freely available books, which you can access from Bobst Library’s
“Ebrary” or from “Project MUSE” on the Bobst website. Simply search for the authors, click on
the books, then click on the e-version and you should be ready to go. If you prefer hard copies
(or Kindle copies) feel free to order them from the publisher or download them to your e-reader.
There are three books (listed below) that do not seem to be easily available online, and I have
ordered copies in the bookstore for your convenience. The Townsend book actually is available
online – but it looks absolutely awful and seems to me difficult to use, so I recommend obtaining
a hard copy. The articles and book excerpts are either from freely available online journals, or
scanned excerpts from books that are available in your NYU Classes website for this course.
There are also some web-based resources, which I have provided links for on the syllabus. I
have tried to check all the links and mark them all appropriately, but let me know if you have any
questions or problems accessing materials.
Robert B. Townsend, History’s Babel: Scholarship, Professionalization, and the Historical
Enterprise in the United States, 1880-1940 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2013);
Erika Doss, Memorial Mania: Public Feeling in America (Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
2010);
Tammy Gordon, Private History in Public: Exhibition and the Settings of Everyday Life
(AltaMira Press, 2010)
Classroom and Grading Policy
There will be no incompletes in the course.
You are expected to attend all classes, complete all readings, and participate in large and small
group class discussions. If you are going to be absent, notify me prior to class. If you are absent
for a class session for any reason, excepting religious observance, you will be responsible for
submitting a 4-5 page paper that analyzes the readings for that week, due the following class
session. Assignments that are submitted late with no negotiated extensions will receive a
reduced grade.
Assignments are due by the end of class on the dates listed above. I prefer that you submit them
electronically as Word documents, since I like to send my reactions by using the “comment”
feature of Word. I will, however, accept “hard copy” documents.
Discussion Board postings should be submitted by 5 P.M. on the Monday before class.
Please observe page limits, pay attention to comments on written work, and take comments into
consideration when completing future assignments.
Grades are determined according to the following criteria: Class Participation and Discussion
Board Postings (10%); President’s House Case Study Response (15%); Memorial Reflection
(15%); Historic Site/House Analysis (15%); Historic Place Assignment (15%); Final Research
Project (30%).
SEPTEMBER 3
-
INTRODUCTION TO THE COURSE
There are several public history resources that all students should be familiar with.
The National Council on Public History constitutes the major professional association that
engages most public historians. The web site: http://www.ncph.org, contains a wealth of
information concerning job opportunities, professional conferences and workshops, publications
and other resources. Students should also regularly follow the Public History Commons
http://publichistorycommons.org/ site, which includes the informative “History@Work” blog
that discusses current issues in the field.
Other more specialized web sites also exist that concern various aspects of the public history
movement. Historic preservation students at several universities banded together to establish
PreserveNet in 1994, which is based at Cornell University and which contains news, job
postings, calls for advocacy and internship opportunities for preservationists. This site can be
accessed at: http://www.preservenet.cornell.edu.
The American Association for State and Local History, which seceded from the American
Historical Association in 1940, constitutes the organization of choice for many local historians,
historic site managers, and history museum workers. It also publishes numerous handy how-todo-it manuals and can be found at: http://www.aaslh.org.
The Society of American Archivists, which also broke away from the American Historical
Association in 1936, serves as the principal North American organization for the archival
profession at: http://www2.archivists.org.
The Oral History Association, established in 1966, maintains a consciously international focus
and generates scholarship concerning the relationship between human memory and history. It
publishes a journal, Oral History Review, operates the H-Oral listserv, and has an informative
web site at: http://www.oralhistory.org/.
The Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media at George Mason University constitutes
the principal source of information for historians interested in digital projects and also operates
the History News Network. This excellent resource is located at: http://www.chnm.gmu.edu.
The National Coalition for History is a Washington-based, non-profit educational organization
that provides leadership in history-related advocacy, acting as a clearinghouse for news and
information concerning history legislation and political developments. All students should read
its updates and subscribe to its RSS feed. Information concerning the organization may be found
at: http://www.historycoalition.org.
SEPTEMBER 10
-
PUBLIC HISTORY: DEFINITIONS AND PROJECTS
Required Readings: Robert B. Townsend, History’s Babel: Scholarship,
Professionalization, and the Historical Enterprise in the United States, 1880-1940 (Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 2013) (BOOK);
G. Wesley Johnson, “Editor’s Preface,” Public Historian (Autumn 1978), I:1, pp. 4-10
(E-JOURNAL);
Robert Kelley, “Public History: Its Origins, Nature, and Prospects,” Public Historian
(Autumn 1978), I:1, pp. 16-28 (E-JOURNAL);
Ronald J. Grele, “Whose History? Whose Public? What is the Goal of a Public
Historian?” Public Historian (Winter 1981), pp. 40-48 (E-JOURNAL)
National Council on Public History, “What Is Public History?” at the following URL:
http://ncph.org/cms/what-is-public-history/
SEPTEMBER 17
-
DOING PUBLIC HISTORY: THE PRESIDENT’S HOUSE
Required Readings: Charlene Mires, “Independence Hall in American Memory Case
Study: the President’s House” http://www.independencehall-americanmemory.com/teachingguides/teaching-guide-public-history/presidents-house-case-study/
SEPTEMBER 24
-
MEMORIALIZATION AND PUBLIC HISTORY
Required Readings: Erika Doss, Memorial Mania: Public Feeling in America (Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 2010) (BOOK);
Daniel J. Cohen, “The Future of Preserving the Past,” available at the following URL:
http://chnm.gmu.edu/essays-on-history-new-media/essays/?essayid=39;
Sheila A. Brennan and T. Mills Kelly, “Why Collecting History Online is Web 1.4.”
available at the following URL: http://chnm.gmu.edu/essays-on-history-newmedia/essays/?essayid=47
OCTOBER 1
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MEMORY AND WAR
Required Readings: Michael Scott Van Wagenen, Remembering the Forgotten War
(Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2012) (BOBST PROJECT MUSE E-BOOK);
LeeAnnWhites, “You Can’t Change History By Moving A Rock: Gender, Race, and the
Cultural Politics of Confederate Memorialization,” in Alice Fahs, ed., The Memory of the Civil
War in American Culture (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2004) (BOBST EBOOK);
Kevin Allen, “The Second Battle of Fort Sumter: The Debate Over the Politics of Race
and Historical Memory at the Opening of America’s Civil War Centennial, 1961,” Public
Historian 33:2 (Spring 2011), pp. 94-109 (E-JOURNAL);
John Bodnar, “The Victors,” chapter in his book, The Good War in American Memory
(Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 2010) (BOBST PROJECT MUSE E-BOOK);
Marita Sturken, “The Wall, the Screen, and the Image: The Vietnam Veterans
Memorial,” Representations, No. 35, Special Issue: Monumental Histories (Summer 1991)
OCTOBER 8
-
LOCAL AND COMMUNITY HISTORY
Required Readings: Judith Richardson, Possessions: The History and Uses of Haunting
in the Hudson Valley (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2005) (BOOK);
Carol Kammen, “Local History’s Past,” from her book On Doing Local History
(Nashville: American Association for State and Local History, 2003) (NYU CLASSES);
Leon Fink, “When Community Comes Home to Roost: The Southern Milltown as Lost
Cause,” Journal of Social History 40:1 (Fall 2006), pp. 119-145 (E-JOURNAL);
Dolores Hayden, “Urban Landscape History: The Sense of Place and the Politics of
Space,” in The Power of Place: Urban Landscapes as Public History (Cambridge: MIT Press,
1995), pp. 14-43 (NYU CLASSES);
“Baltimore ’68: Riots and Rebirth” at: http://archives.ubalt.edu/bsr/index.html;
“Coney Island History Project,” at: http://www.coneyislandhistory.org/;
Lauren Gutterman, “OutHistory.org: An Experiment in LGBTQ Community HistoryMaking,” The Public Historian (32:4) (2010), (E-JOURNAL) and also examine the website:
http://www.outhistory.org
OCTOBER 15
-
PROJECT DISCUSSION
Required Readings: Leigh Schmidt, “The Easter Parade: Piety, Fashion, and Display,”
Religion and American Culture (Summer 1994): 135-164 (E-JOURNAL);
Penne Restad, “Christmas in 19th-Century America,” History Today (December 1995) (EJOURNAL);
Wayne Ashley, “The Stations of the Cross: Christ, Politics, and Processions on New
York City’s Lower East Side,” in Robert Orsi, ed., Gods of the City (1999) (NYU CLASSES);
Kenneth Moss, “St. Patrick’s Day Celebrations and the Formation of Irish-American
Identity, 1845-1875,” Journal of Social History (Fall 1995) (E-JOURNAL);
Robert Orsi, “The Religious Boundaries of an Inbetween People: Street Feste and the
Problem of the Dark-Skinned Other in Italian Harlem, 1920-1990,” American Quarterly
(September 1992), (E-JOURNAL);
David Blight, “Decoration Days: The Origins of Memorial Day in North and South,” in
Alice Fahs, ed., The Memory of the Civil War in American Culture (Chapel Hill: University of
North Carolina Press, 2004) (BOBST E-BOOK)
Representatives from the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation will visit
the class in order to discuss the final class project, hand out assignments, and present research
methodologies.
OCTOBER 22
-
HISTORIC PRESERVATION
Required Readings: Andrew Hurley, Beyond Preservation: Using Public History to
Revitalize Inner Cities (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2010) (BOOK);
Marie Tyler-McGraw, “Southern Comfort Levels: Race, Heritage Tourism, and the Civil
War in Richmond,” in James Oliver Horton and Lois Horton, eds., Slavery and History: The
Tough Stuff of American Memory (New York: The New Press, 2006) (NYU CLASSES);
Tiya Miles, “Showplace of the Cherokee Nation: Race and the Making of a Southern
House Museum,” The Public Historian (33:4, November 2011), pp. 11-34 (E-JOURNAL);
Christine Arato “This House Holds Many Memories: Constructions of a Presidential
Birthplace at the John Fitzgerald Kennedy National Historic Site,” in Seth Bruggeman, ed., Born
in the U.S.A.: Birth, Commemoration, and American Public Memory (Amherst: UMass Press,
2012 (NYU CLASSES);
Ned Kaufman, “Moving Forward: Futures for a Preservation Movement,” in Kaufman,
ed., Race, Place, and Story: Essays on the Past and Future of Historic Preservation (New York:
Routledge, 2009) (NYU CLASSES)
OCTOBER 29
-
HISTORIC SITES AND COMPLICATED HISTORIES
Required Readings: Amy Tyson, The Wages of History: Emotional Labor on Public
History’s Front Lines (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2013) (BOBST PROJECT
MUSE E-BOOK);
Richard Rabinowicz, “Eavesdropping at the Well: Interpretive Media in the Slavery in
New York Exhibition,” Public Historian 35:3 (August 2013), pp. 8-45 (E-JOURNAL);
Cathy Stanton, “The Run of the Mill” chapter in her book The Lowell Experiment: Public
History in a Postindustrial City (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2006) (BOBST
PROJECT MUSE E-BOOK);
Julia C. Wells, “In the Shadow of the Butcher: The Limits to Remembering in PostApartheid South Africa,” Public Historian 36:2 (May 2014), pp. 51-74 (E-JOURNAL);
International Coalition of Sites of Conscience at: http://www.sitesofconscience.org/ ;
Guantanamo Public Memory Project at: http://gitmomemory.org/
NOVEMBER 5
-
HISTORY MUSEUMS AND HISTORICAL SOCIETIES
Tammy Gordon, Private History in Public: Exhibition and the Settings of Everyday Life
(AltaMira Press, 2010) (BOOK);
Andrew Ferguson, “The Past Isn’t What It Used To Be,” in Land of Lincoln: Adventures
in Abe’s America (New York: Grove Press, 1987), pp. 69-89) (NYU CLASSES);
John Kuo Wei Tchen and Liz Sevcenko, “The ‘Dialogic Museum’ Revisited: A
Collaborative Reflection,” inn Bill Adair, et al, ed., Letting Go? Sharing Historical Authority in
a User-Generated World (Philadephia: Pew Center, 2012) (NYU CLASSES);
Cary Carson, “The End of History Museums: What’s Plan B?” The Public Historian
(November 2008), pp. 9-27 (E-JOURNAL)
NOVEMBER 12
-
ORAL HISTORIANS AND PUBLIC HISTORY
Alessandro Portelli, “On the Peculiarities of Oral History,” History Workshop Journal
(1981) 12 pp. 96-107 (E-JOURNAL);
Valerie Yow, “’Do I Like Them Too Much?’ Effects of the Oral History Interview on the
Interviewer and Vice-Versa,” Oral History Review (1997) 24:1, pp. 55-79 (E-JOURNAL);
Linda Shopes, “Oral History and the Study of Communities: Problems, Paradoxes, and
Possibilities,” Journal of American History (2002), 89:2, pp. 588-598 (E-JOURNAL);
Michael Frisch, “Oral History and the Digital Revolution: Towards a Post-Documentary
Sensibility,” in Robert Perks and Alistair Thomson, The Oral History Reader: Second Edition
(NYU CLASSES);
“Oral Histories of the American South” on the Documenting the American South website
at: http://docsouth.unc.edu/sohp/
NOVEMBER 19
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PROJECT UPDATES
NOVEMBER 26
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HAPPY THANKSGIVING
DECEMBER 3
-
FINAL PROJECT DRY RUN
DECEMBER 10
-
NO CLASS (NYU ON MONDAY SCHEDULE)
DECEMBER 17
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FINAL PROJECT PRESENTATIONS