As WE CELEBRATE the twentieth anniversary of the National Council on Public History (NCPH), Phil ... more As WE CELEBRATE the twentieth anniversary of the National Council on Public History (NCPH), Phil Cantelon and I asked prospective authors in this anniversary issue to focus on concerns of public historians and the evolution of this thing called "public history" that we are still creating. We certainly recognized, as do our authors, that historians had been doing public history as archivists, museum curators, federal historians, and editors long before Bob Kelley coined the phrase during the job crisis of the mid1970s, but that something happened thereafter that created a new way for us to identify ourselves. The Public Historian and NCPH helped crystallize that identity, and most of our authors have been active members of NCPH. Several, especially Jack Holl and Richard Hewlett, briefly mention the early history of NCPH in their essays on the Society for History in the Federal Government. That institutional history of NCPH deserves its own more detailed publication some day, which should include the intricate relationships between NCPH and its adopted journal, The Public Historian.' Of course, as several authors here note, that history must include the stories of how NCPH directors hid from their spouses the annual $100 "contributions" that bankrolled this nascent organization during its first years!
Public History is a collection of essays which comes closer than anything that currently exists t... more Public History is a collection of essays which comes closer than anything that currently exists to being an introductory textbook on the practice of public history. Its thirty-two selections explore in great detail the methods employed by the thousands of historians who work in settings other than the academic. It is thus not surprising that the book is receiving much commendation, including an award from the editors' home institution. West Virginia University. Both Barbara J. Howe and Emory L. Kemp are extremely wellqualified editors of, and contributors to, this volume. Howe, who has a Ph.D. in history from Temple University, has designed an M.A. public history program at West Virginia University. She has also been very active in the National Council on Public History and is current chair of this national organization. Kemp has a Ph.D. in mechanics from the University of Illinois and has long experience in the preservation of historic industrial sites. At West Virginia University he founded the Program in the History of Science and Technology and teaches courses on historic preservation and the history of technology. The two editors supply effective introductory materials as well as useful essays concerning historic preservation and industrial archeology. The offerings of the many contributors are divided into three sections. In the first of these, an introductory overview of public history, Leslie H. Fishel, Jr., defines public history as "a loose confederation of content areas and occupational interests,' an undertaking that is "alive, well, and growing' (11). The section is completed by an entertaining and effective exploration of the "perils' of public history by Gerald George, former director of the American Assodation for State and Local History. The numerous essays in section two range over the many and wide varieties of public history, an enlightening discussion for those who would like to know what the term public history "really means,' or for the instructor intent on exposing students to the considerable dimensions of public history. Archive management, oral history, editing public records, historic preservation, natural resources management, and interpretive media are among the topics considered. Part three, also extensive in scope, examines the practice of public history in museums, history organizations, public projects, government and public works, the national park service, public policy, and business. Methods and technique come under close scrutiny by such experienced public historians as Larry E. Tise, formerly head of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission and now director
SINCE THE MID-NINETEENTH CENTURY, women have been an important part of the hietoric preservation ... more SINCE THE MID-NINETEENTH CENTURY, women have been an important part of the hietoric preservation movement in the United States. As ama- teurs and professionals, as individuals and in groups, women have worked diligently to protect the country's historic properties. ...
... According to Robert W. Pomeroy III, deputy adviser of the Inter-American Development Bank, th... more ... According to Robert W. Pomeroy III, deputy adviser of the Inter-American Development Bank, the analytic, research, writing, and teaching skills of historians suit them well for positions in information management, human ... 12 Anthony R. Sutcliffe, ed., "The Debut of Public ...
Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, 1992
J. William Frost writes at the start of his illuminating account of religious liberty in Pennsylv... more J. William Frost writes at the start of his illuminating account of religious liberty in Pennsylvania that his subject has found a small place in the histories of American religious freedom. A brief survey of recent studies-including Thomas J. Curry, The First Freedoms: Church and State in America to the Passage oj the First Amendment; Leonard Levy, The Establishment Clause: Religion and the First Amendment; William Lee Miller, The First Liberty: Religion and the American Republic; and the important essays edited by Mark A. Noll in Religion and American Politics: From the Colonial Period to the 1980s-will confirm Frost's point. While historians consistently defer to the influence of William Penn and the significance of Pennsylvania's religious pluralism for the "lively experiment" of religious freedom, meaningful assessment of these subjects is consistently bypassed in favor of lengthy discussions of Roger Williams, Isaac Backus, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, and the advancement of freedom of conscience in New England and Virginia. This is no great news to colonial scholars of the Middle Atlantic who continue to contend with the underestimation of their region's importance in the creation of the republic. Yet, as Frost writes, from its founding "Pennsylvania stood for non-coercion of conscience, divorce of the institutional church from the state, and the cooperation of the church and state in fostering morality necessary for prosperity and good government" (p. 2). For its choice of subject alone, Frost's book is a major contribution. Despite the apparently narrow focus on one state, the study also incorporates the best aspects of an all-encompassing synthesis. In 165 pages of text Frost takes on such fundamental subjects as William Penn's ideas of natural law, freedom of conscience, and toleration; the Quakers' simultaneous attempts to apply principles of toleration and moral control to Pennsylvania's expanding population; the pre-Revolutionary conflict between Quakers and Presbyterians over Pennsylvania's peace policies (here Frost presents a lucid explanation of the religious ingredients of the controversy, usually and sometimes opaquely described as exclusively political); the place of religious liberty in the ideology of the framers of Pennsylvania's 1776 and 1790 constitutions and the United States Constitution; ideas of Pennsylvania's enlightenment thinkers, including James Wilson, Benjamin Rush, and Thomas Paine (without slighting, it should be added, Jefferson and Madison); and the positions taken by antebellum politicians, clergymen, and judges on freedom of religion in tandem with such issues as trade unionism, Sunday school education, 3208 3212 I certify that the statements made by me above are correct and complete
Barbara J. Howe, director of public history at West Virginia University and retiring executive se... more Barbara J. Howe, director of public history at West Virginia University and retiring executive secretary of the National Council on Public History, reports on the advantages (and frustrations) of encouraging students to participate in community-based public history projects, whether on grants, contracts, or for pro bono work. She tells how and why instructors should take graduate students "out of the classroom" to meet the public-an essential phase for students learning to become professionals. Such activity will help develop a group esprit de corps essential for nurturing confidence in the aspiring public historian.
Public History is a collection of essays which comes closer than anything that currently exists t... more Public History is a collection of essays which comes closer than anything that currently exists to being an introductory textbook on the practice of public history. Its thirty-two selections explore in great detail the methods employed by the thousands of historians who work in settings other than the academic. It is thus not surprising that the book is receiving much commendation, including an award from the editors' home institution. West Virginia University. Both Barbara J. Howe and Emory L. Kemp are extremely wellqualified editors of, and contributors to, this volume. Howe, who has a Ph.D. in history from Temple University, has designed an M.A. public history program at West Virginia University. She has also been very active in the National Council on Public History and is current chair of this national organization. Kemp has a Ph.D. in mechanics from the University of Illinois and has long experience in the preservation of historic industrial sites. At West Virginia University he founded the Program in the History of Science and Technology and teaches courses on historic preservation and the history of technology. The two editors supply effective introductory materials as well as useful essays concerning historic preservation and industrial archeology. The offerings of the many contributors are divided into three sections. In the first of these, an introductory overview of public history, Leslie H. Fishel, Jr., defines public history as "a loose confederation of content areas and occupational interests,' an undertaking that is "alive, well, and growing' (11). The section is completed by an entertaining and effective exploration of the "perils' of public history by Gerald George, former director of the American Assodation for State and Local History. The numerous essays in section two range over the many and wide varieties of public history, an enlightening discussion for those who would like to know what the term public history "really means,' or for the instructor intent on exposing students to the considerable dimensions of public history. Archive management, oral history, editing public records, historic preservation, natural resources management, and interpretive media are among the topics considered. Part three, also extensive in scope, examines the practice of public history in museums, history organizations, public projects, government and public works, the national park service, public policy, and business. Methods and technique come under close scrutiny by such experienced public historians as Larry E. Tise, formerly head of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission and now director
Robyn L. Rosen’s goal for this edited collection is “simple, yet ambitious . . . to create text t... more Robyn L. Rosen’s goal for this edited collection is “simple, yet ambitious . . . to create text that would introduce undergraduates to Women’s Studies” (vii). To do this, she pursued two purposes that influenced her own teaching: “to place the development of Women’s Studies in a historical perspective and to show its impact on the academy” (vii). Pursuant to these goals, this volume is divided into two parts. Part 1, Historical Background, includes 12 selections totaling about 100 pages that focus on the history of women and education, the birth of Women’s Studies as a discipline related to the civil rights, peace, and women’s liberation movements of the 1960s and early 1970s, and visions of Women’s Studies. Part 2, Women’s Studies in Action, includes 37 selections that are divided into sections on history, science, sociology, communication, English/literary studies, economics, philosophy, anthropology, psychology, business management studies, political science, and a final section on considerations/critiques of women’s studies. Business management is the only focus area outside the liberal arts, and articles related to the arts, health care, journalism, or engineering are obvious omissions, with the latter being especially important if Rosen really wants to have students look at “what to do about sexism in the academy,” which she says is one of her goals (ix). Some of the articles are now classics, like Carroll Smith-Rosenberg’s “The Female World of Love and Ritual” (1975) in the history section, or appear in other introductory texts in women’s studies, for example, Judith Lorber’s (1993) “‘Night to His Day’: The Social Construction of Gender.” Others are primary documents, like the 1969 “Ten-Point Program” from Black Student Unions or the Columbia Strike Committee’s “Columbia Liberated” statement from 1968, both of which would require context from an instructor in order for students to grasp the meaning of these groups’ words and actions. Selections that originally appeared as journal articles work better here than do those that are from books because the former were designed to be stand-alone contributions to scholarship and because Rosen seems to have done no editing to book selections. For instance, Randy Albelda’s article on “Fallacies of Welfare-to-Work Policies,” from Lost Ground (2002) refers to another article “in this volume” (p. 335), a reference to Lost Ground instead of Women’s Studies in the Academy. While Rosen provides an eclectic overview of the academy and the contributions that Women’s Studies and feminist scholars have made to transforming various disciplines, it was hard for this reviewer to see how this volume might be useful to first-year Women’s Studies students in an introductory class who might approach the course with little or no background or students in any other discipline who would be taking an introductory Women’s Studies course as a general education requirement. If this is the target audience, it is not clear what coherent vision of women’s studies (if such is possible) might emerge from their readings.
As WE CELEBRATE the twentieth anniversary of the National Council on Public History (NCPH), Phil ... more As WE CELEBRATE the twentieth anniversary of the National Council on Public History (NCPH), Phil Cantelon and I asked prospective authors in this anniversary issue to focus on concerns of public historians and the evolution of this thing called "public history" that we are still creating. We certainly recognized, as do our authors, that historians had been doing public history as archivists, museum curators, federal historians, and editors long before Bob Kelley coined the phrase during the job crisis of the mid1970s, but that something happened thereafter that created a new way for us to identify ourselves. The Public Historian and NCPH helped crystallize that identity, and most of our authors have been active members of NCPH. Several, especially Jack Holl and Richard Hewlett, briefly mention the early history of NCPH in their essays on the Society for History in the Federal Government. That institutional history of NCPH deserves its own more detailed publication some day, which should include the intricate relationships between NCPH and its adopted journal, The Public Historian.' Of course, as several authors here note, that history must include the stories of how NCPH directors hid from their spouses the annual $100 "contributions" that bankrolled this nascent organization during its first years!
Public History is a collection of essays which comes closer than anything that currently exists t... more Public History is a collection of essays which comes closer than anything that currently exists to being an introductory textbook on the practice of public history. Its thirty-two selections explore in great detail the methods employed by the thousands of historians who work in settings other than the academic. It is thus not surprising that the book is receiving much commendation, including an award from the editors' home institution. West Virginia University. Both Barbara J. Howe and Emory L. Kemp are extremely wellqualified editors of, and contributors to, this volume. Howe, who has a Ph.D. in history from Temple University, has designed an M.A. public history program at West Virginia University. She has also been very active in the National Council on Public History and is current chair of this national organization. Kemp has a Ph.D. in mechanics from the University of Illinois and has long experience in the preservation of historic industrial sites. At West Virginia University he founded the Program in the History of Science and Technology and teaches courses on historic preservation and the history of technology. The two editors supply effective introductory materials as well as useful essays concerning historic preservation and industrial archeology. The offerings of the many contributors are divided into three sections. In the first of these, an introductory overview of public history, Leslie H. Fishel, Jr., defines public history as "a loose confederation of content areas and occupational interests,' an undertaking that is "alive, well, and growing' (11). The section is completed by an entertaining and effective exploration of the "perils' of public history by Gerald George, former director of the American Assodation for State and Local History. The numerous essays in section two range over the many and wide varieties of public history, an enlightening discussion for those who would like to know what the term public history "really means,' or for the instructor intent on exposing students to the considerable dimensions of public history. Archive management, oral history, editing public records, historic preservation, natural resources management, and interpretive media are among the topics considered. Part three, also extensive in scope, examines the practice of public history in museums, history organizations, public projects, government and public works, the national park service, public policy, and business. Methods and technique come under close scrutiny by such experienced public historians as Larry E. Tise, formerly head of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission and now director
SINCE THE MID-NINETEENTH CENTURY, women have been an important part of the hietoric preservation ... more SINCE THE MID-NINETEENTH CENTURY, women have been an important part of the hietoric preservation movement in the United States. As ama- teurs and professionals, as individuals and in groups, women have worked diligently to protect the country's historic properties. ...
... According to Robert W. Pomeroy III, deputy adviser of the Inter-American Development Bank, th... more ... According to Robert W. Pomeroy III, deputy adviser of the Inter-American Development Bank, the analytic, research, writing, and teaching skills of historians suit them well for positions in information management, human ... 12 Anthony R. Sutcliffe, ed., "The Debut of Public ...
Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, 1992
J. William Frost writes at the start of his illuminating account of religious liberty in Pennsylv... more J. William Frost writes at the start of his illuminating account of religious liberty in Pennsylvania that his subject has found a small place in the histories of American religious freedom. A brief survey of recent studies-including Thomas J. Curry, The First Freedoms: Church and State in America to the Passage oj the First Amendment; Leonard Levy, The Establishment Clause: Religion and the First Amendment; William Lee Miller, The First Liberty: Religion and the American Republic; and the important essays edited by Mark A. Noll in Religion and American Politics: From the Colonial Period to the 1980s-will confirm Frost's point. While historians consistently defer to the influence of William Penn and the significance of Pennsylvania's religious pluralism for the "lively experiment" of religious freedom, meaningful assessment of these subjects is consistently bypassed in favor of lengthy discussions of Roger Williams, Isaac Backus, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, and the advancement of freedom of conscience in New England and Virginia. This is no great news to colonial scholars of the Middle Atlantic who continue to contend with the underestimation of their region's importance in the creation of the republic. Yet, as Frost writes, from its founding "Pennsylvania stood for non-coercion of conscience, divorce of the institutional church from the state, and the cooperation of the church and state in fostering morality necessary for prosperity and good government" (p. 2). For its choice of subject alone, Frost's book is a major contribution. Despite the apparently narrow focus on one state, the study also incorporates the best aspects of an all-encompassing synthesis. In 165 pages of text Frost takes on such fundamental subjects as William Penn's ideas of natural law, freedom of conscience, and toleration; the Quakers' simultaneous attempts to apply principles of toleration and moral control to Pennsylvania's expanding population; the pre-Revolutionary conflict between Quakers and Presbyterians over Pennsylvania's peace policies (here Frost presents a lucid explanation of the religious ingredients of the controversy, usually and sometimes opaquely described as exclusively political); the place of religious liberty in the ideology of the framers of Pennsylvania's 1776 and 1790 constitutions and the United States Constitution; ideas of Pennsylvania's enlightenment thinkers, including James Wilson, Benjamin Rush, and Thomas Paine (without slighting, it should be added, Jefferson and Madison); and the positions taken by antebellum politicians, clergymen, and judges on freedom of religion in tandem with such issues as trade unionism, Sunday school education, 3208 3212 I certify that the statements made by me above are correct and complete
Barbara J. Howe, director of public history at West Virginia University and retiring executive se... more Barbara J. Howe, director of public history at West Virginia University and retiring executive secretary of the National Council on Public History, reports on the advantages (and frustrations) of encouraging students to participate in community-based public history projects, whether on grants, contracts, or for pro bono work. She tells how and why instructors should take graduate students "out of the classroom" to meet the public-an essential phase for students learning to become professionals. Such activity will help develop a group esprit de corps essential for nurturing confidence in the aspiring public historian.
Public History is a collection of essays which comes closer than anything that currently exists t... more Public History is a collection of essays which comes closer than anything that currently exists to being an introductory textbook on the practice of public history. Its thirty-two selections explore in great detail the methods employed by the thousands of historians who work in settings other than the academic. It is thus not surprising that the book is receiving much commendation, including an award from the editors' home institution. West Virginia University. Both Barbara J. Howe and Emory L. Kemp are extremely wellqualified editors of, and contributors to, this volume. Howe, who has a Ph.D. in history from Temple University, has designed an M.A. public history program at West Virginia University. She has also been very active in the National Council on Public History and is current chair of this national organization. Kemp has a Ph.D. in mechanics from the University of Illinois and has long experience in the preservation of historic industrial sites. At West Virginia University he founded the Program in the History of Science and Technology and teaches courses on historic preservation and the history of technology. The two editors supply effective introductory materials as well as useful essays concerning historic preservation and industrial archeology. The offerings of the many contributors are divided into three sections. In the first of these, an introductory overview of public history, Leslie H. Fishel, Jr., defines public history as "a loose confederation of content areas and occupational interests,' an undertaking that is "alive, well, and growing' (11). The section is completed by an entertaining and effective exploration of the "perils' of public history by Gerald George, former director of the American Assodation for State and Local History. The numerous essays in section two range over the many and wide varieties of public history, an enlightening discussion for those who would like to know what the term public history "really means,' or for the instructor intent on exposing students to the considerable dimensions of public history. Archive management, oral history, editing public records, historic preservation, natural resources management, and interpretive media are among the topics considered. Part three, also extensive in scope, examines the practice of public history in museums, history organizations, public projects, government and public works, the national park service, public policy, and business. Methods and technique come under close scrutiny by such experienced public historians as Larry E. Tise, formerly head of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission and now director
Robyn L. Rosen’s goal for this edited collection is “simple, yet ambitious . . . to create text t... more Robyn L. Rosen’s goal for this edited collection is “simple, yet ambitious . . . to create text that would introduce undergraduates to Women’s Studies” (vii). To do this, she pursued two purposes that influenced her own teaching: “to place the development of Women’s Studies in a historical perspective and to show its impact on the academy” (vii). Pursuant to these goals, this volume is divided into two parts. Part 1, Historical Background, includes 12 selections totaling about 100 pages that focus on the history of women and education, the birth of Women’s Studies as a discipline related to the civil rights, peace, and women’s liberation movements of the 1960s and early 1970s, and visions of Women’s Studies. Part 2, Women’s Studies in Action, includes 37 selections that are divided into sections on history, science, sociology, communication, English/literary studies, economics, philosophy, anthropology, psychology, business management studies, political science, and a final section on considerations/critiques of women’s studies. Business management is the only focus area outside the liberal arts, and articles related to the arts, health care, journalism, or engineering are obvious omissions, with the latter being especially important if Rosen really wants to have students look at “what to do about sexism in the academy,” which she says is one of her goals (ix). Some of the articles are now classics, like Carroll Smith-Rosenberg’s “The Female World of Love and Ritual” (1975) in the history section, or appear in other introductory texts in women’s studies, for example, Judith Lorber’s (1993) “‘Night to His Day’: The Social Construction of Gender.” Others are primary documents, like the 1969 “Ten-Point Program” from Black Student Unions or the Columbia Strike Committee’s “Columbia Liberated” statement from 1968, both of which would require context from an instructor in order for students to grasp the meaning of these groups’ words and actions. Selections that originally appeared as journal articles work better here than do those that are from books because the former were designed to be stand-alone contributions to scholarship and because Rosen seems to have done no editing to book selections. For instance, Randy Albelda’s article on “Fallacies of Welfare-to-Work Policies,” from Lost Ground (2002) refers to another article “in this volume” (p. 335), a reference to Lost Ground instead of Women’s Studies in the Academy. While Rosen provides an eclectic overview of the academy and the contributions that Women’s Studies and feminist scholars have made to transforming various disciplines, it was hard for this reviewer to see how this volume might be useful to first-year Women’s Studies students in an introductory class who might approach the course with little or no background or students in any other discipline who would be taking an introductory Women’s Studies course as a general education requirement. If this is the target audience, it is not clear what coherent vision of women’s studies (if such is possible) might emerge from their readings.
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