Dr. Michael Wm. Doyle
Ball State University
Department of History
Burkhardt Bldg. [BB] 213
Muncie, IN 47306-0480
Office: 765-285-8732; Fax: 765-285-5612
E-mail: mwdoyle@.bsu.edu
Course Webpage: < http://mwdoyle.iweb.bsu.edu/hist_240/ >
Office Hours: Thurs., 2:00-4:00 P.M. and by appt.
[HST240SQ.W14.Rev]
HISTORY 240 / Sec. 001: INTRODUCTION TO PUBLIC HISTORY
Spring Semester 2012
Week 14 Reading Assignment Study Questions
Business/Corporate History; Entrepreneurial History; Public History Ethics
James B. Gardner and Peter S. LaPaglia, eds., Public History: An Introduction (2nd ed.; Malabar, Fla.: Krieger,
2004), Elizabeth W. Adkins, “In Business and Corporations: Serving as the Corporate Memory,” 371-384;
Philip L. Cantelon, “As a Business: Hired, Not Bought,” 385-395.
Mike Wallace, Mickey Mouse History; and Other Essays on American Memory (Philadelphia: Temple
University Press, 1996), “Industrial Museums and the History of Deindustrialization,” 87-100.
Ronald C. Tobey, “The Public Historian as Advocate: Is Special Attention to Professional Ethics Necessary?”
in Public History Readings ed. Phyllis K. Leffler and Joseph Brent (Malabar, FL: Krieger Publishing Co.,
1992), 127-134.
Ruth Ann Overbeck, “History as a Business,” Public History: An Introduction ed. Barbara J Howe and Emory
L. Kemp (Malabar, FL: Robert E. Krieger Pub. Co., 1988), 440-452.
“AASLH Statement of Professional Ethics,” American Association for State and Local History (Nashville, TN:
AASLH, n.d., but ca. 1988).
Lee Anderson and Kathy Penningroth, “Is There Life after Graduate School? Maybe in Public History”
Perspectives [American Historical Association newsletter] 35:1 (January 1997), 9-10.
Daniel Drew Turner, “Historians for Hire,” Lingua Franca 5:6 (September/October 1995), 12.
Ruth A. Dudgeon email posting to PUBLHIST Listserv, 5/30/97, Re: “Job Opportunity”
Barry Meier, “Chroniclers of Collaboration: Historians Are in Demand to Study Corporate Ties to Nazis,” New
York Times (18 February, 1999), C1, C5.
Gail Koch, “Your memories are her business: Woman turns photos, videos into keepsakes,” Star Press (26
September, 2006), A1, A6.
WSJ, “Andy Anderson: Wells Fargo official historian helps bank woo rich private clients,” History News
Network (19 May, 2007).
_________________________________________
Gardner: Elizabeth W. Adkins, “In Businesses and Corporations: Serving as the Corporate
Memory,” pp. 371-384:
1. According to Adkins, what is one major benefit to working as an archivist or
historian in a corporate setting?
2. What, on the other hand, is a key disadvantage of working in corporate history
or archival departments?
3. What was the first recognized archives program in the United States sponsored
by a large corporation and when was it established?
4. To whom or what does a corporate-sponsored historian or archivist owe first
loyalty? How might this relationship conflict with one's professional training?
5. What types of activities are typically performed by an archival program within a
corporation?
6. What potential problems are posed by public access within a corporate archival
program and how are these handled differently from a traditional research
collection?
7. What role does the quest for historical accuracy play when conducting research
within a corporate archives as an employee?
2
Gardner: Philip L. Cantelon, “As a Business: Hired, Not Bought,” pp. 385-395:
1. Cantelon mentions seven personal attributes that historical consultants should
aspire to exhibit in pursuing such an occupation. What are they?
2. Identify the four areas in which entrepreneurial historians typically find their
skills to be most in demand.
3. Which types of professionals are most often drawn to seek private consulting
contracts with the government agencies or history organizations?
Wallace: “Industrial Museums and the History of Deindustrialization,” pp. 87-100:
1. What four suggestions does Wallace propose for the creators of new history
exhibits?
2. For what reasons are industrial museums typically created?
3. According to Wallace, what opportunity is often lost in the planning of industrial
museums?
3
4. By his perspective, how might the embrace of a ‘capitalist ideology' by staff of the
industrial museum affect the way they interpret history in their exhibits?
5. List the five ways Wallace outlines that capitalism has had a major impact on
industrialization and hence should be acknowledged in industrial museum exhibits.
6. Identify the four difficulties that may arise when exhibit planners look at
industrial history from a stages-of-development perspective.
7. How did the museum in Paterson, N.J., interpret the Great Strike of 1913? What
changes would Wallace have made to the exhibit?
8. How could the foreign policy dimension of deindustrialization be exhibited?
9. What is the most obvious obstacle to designing an exhibition that treated
deindustrialization in all of its complexity? How does Wallace suggest it should be
accomplished?
10. Describe the problems Wallace sees in the way labor history is interpreted at the
Discovery Hall in South Bend, Ind.
4
11. Why does Wallace think labor groups, outraged community leaders, and other
local citizens in deindustrialized areas would be more likely to support an exhibit on
deindustrialization?
12. What methods does the Youngstown, Oh., exhibit use to interpret the rise and
decline of the steel industry in that community?
13. What was the Pittsburgh Regional History Center planning to include in its
exhibits on the steel industry? How will it differ from the Youngstown exhibit?
Ronald C. Tobey, “The Public Historian as Advocate: Is Special Attention to Professional Ethics
Necessary?” in Public History Readings ed. Phyllis K. Leffler and Joseph Brent (Malabar, FL:
Krieger Publishing Co., 1992), 127-134:
1. What two points does Tobey use to argue that the two principles of academic
scholarship – disinterestedness and peer review – cannot adequately safeguard the
truth of nonacademic scholarship?
2. How does Tobey defend his statement that public scholarship is, by default,
interested scholarship? List all three of his arguments.
3. How does the story Tobey tells about the legal struggle between California and
Arizona over the water in the Colorado River support his argument that public history
is advocacy?
5
4. List the three major areas where “the nature of public historical scholarship
necessitates explicit instruction in professional ethics and codification of professional
ethics for public historians” and briefly explain each.
5. According to Tobey, what all should be involved in “ethical training”?
Ruth Ann Overbeck, “History as a Business,” Public History: An Introduction ed. Barbara J
Howe and Emory L. Kemp (Malabar, FL: Robert E. Krieger Pub. Co., 1988), 440-452:
1. This essay is about historians who set themselves up as businesspersons, i.e.,
freelance consultants for hire. Overbeck explains that one of the avenues available to
non-academically based historians is what she calls “entrepreneurial history.” What
does she mean by this term?
2. Which fields of history are represented in this career area?
3. Who are likely to be the clients of such firms?
4. Overbeck tells us that other, more traditional historians object to the whole idea of
“entrepreneurial history.” What exactly are their objections?
5. How does Overbeck respond to this criticism?
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6. What does she have to say about the subject of ethics as it pertains to
entrepreneurial historians?
7. Why does Overbeck caution that “if the idea of devoting a significant portion of
your career to the details of participating in the world of business does not seem
appealing, entrepreneurial history is not for you”?
8. The bulk of Overbeck’s essay is devoted to practical suggestions for “Organizing
Your Business.” Identify and briefly explain the steps she advises her readers to follow
in establishing themselves as entrepreneurial public historians.
“AASLH Statement of Professional Ethics,” American Association for State and Local History
(Nashville, TN: AASLH, n.d., but ca. 1988):
1. According to this statement, what happens to a member of the American
Association for State and Local History (AASLH) who violates the standards laid out
here?
2. What four standards does this statement set for historical interpretation?
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3. According to this statement, what are the guidelines for a museum employee who
has his or her own personal collection on the side?
Lee Anderson and Kathy Penningroth, “Is There Life after Graduate School? Maybe in Public
History” Perspectives [American Historical Association newsletter] 35:1 (January 1997), 9-10:
1. What experience introduced the authors to public history, and what resulted from
it?
2. According to the authors, what are the similarities between academic and public
history?
3. What do the authors have to say about professional autonomy?
Daniel Drew Turner, “Historians for Hire,” Lingua Franca 5:6 (September/October 1995), 12:
1. What first brought Cantelon to public history?
2. What sort of projects does “History Associations, Inc.” take on?
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3. What does Cantelon have to say about the “question of influence”?
Ruth A. Dudgeon email posting to PUBLHIST Listserv, 5/30/97, Re: “Job Opportunity”:
1. According to this advertisement, what qualifications is History Associates looking
for?
Barry Meier, “Chroniclers of Collaboration: Historians Are in Demand to Study
Corporate Ties to Nazis,” New York Times (18 February, 1999), C1, C5:
1. How have corporations responded to the growing amount of Holocaust-related
lawsuits?
2. How does this article say the recent demand for World War II research began?
3. What does the author mean when he call Bradford Snell a “corporate gadfly”?
Gail Koch, “Your memories are her business: Woman turns photos, videos into keepsakes,”
Muncie Star Press (26 September, 2006), A1, A6:
1. What is Helen Kibby’s educational background?
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2. What does Suzanne Plesha say is most notable about entrepreneurs?
[Wall Street Journal], “Andy Anderson: Wells Fargo official historian helps bank woo rich
private clients,” History News Network (19 May, 2007):
1. In what specific ways does the official historian of Wells Fargo bank help attract and
retain clients for the firm?
10