Tag Archive
15 September 2016 – Jonathan Schaffer 2
I recently returned from a visit to the former Jewish shtetls of my ancestors now located in present-day Ukraine. This was my second trip in less than a decade, but it felt very different from my initial experience in 2010. When I first visited, I was overwhelmed by the emotional impact of seeing firsthand once flourishing communities relegated to historical oblivion. Read More
29 August 2016 – James F. Brooks
Editor’s note: We publish TPH editor James Brooks’s introduction to the August 2016 issue of The Public Historian. This digital version of the piece differs slightly from the print edition. The entire issue is available online to National Council on Public History members. Read More
09 August 2016 – David Rotenstein 2
On July 4, about 60 people attended a party thrown by Washington, DC activists trying to save a historic water filtration plant. The event was held in a row house in the city’s gentrifying Bloomingdale neighborhood, which I wrote about in a recent History@Work post. Read More
13 July 2016 – David Rotenstein 3
In its infancy, gentrification was a word used to describe changes in urban neighborhoods. Now, gentrification has been documented in suburbs and rural areas around the world. It is even sweeping through Washington, DC’s suburban counties, where farmlands are being converted into housing and mixed-use developments. Read More
11 July 2016 – editors
The Chicago History Museum (CHM) and Breakthrough, a community-based organization that provides social services on Chicago’s West Side, have launched Forty Blocks: The East Garfield Park Oral History Project. Focused on the 1970s to the present, this collaborative effort examines daily life in East Garfield Park, an African American neighborhood that has been marginalized in contemporary Chicago and neglected in the recent historical record. Read More
09 June 2016 – David Rotenstein
Residents of Washington, D.C.’s Bloomingdale neighborhood are using history to plan for the gentrifying area’s future. Through a process of collaborative research and land use planning, they hope to mitigate the adverse effects of displacement, rising housing costs, and the loss of a sense of community. Read More
16 May 2016 – editors
In April 2016, Brooklyn Historical Society (BHS) launched Flatbush + Main, a podcast dedicated to telling the rich stories of Brooklyn’s past. Hosted by BHS oral historian Zaheer Ali and director of public history Julie Golia, Flatbush + Main dives deep into Brooklyn’s sometimes iconic, sometimes quirky histories. Read More
20 April 2016 – Lara Kelland
public engagement, community history, digital history, The Public Historian, TPH 38.1, digital divide, "Chasing the Frontiers of Digital Technology" responses
In 2008, the Journal of American History published a conversation among several historians regarding the future of digital history. William G. Thomas III said, “We might imagine a more proximate collaboration in which historians team up with [community] groups. The Web 2.0 movement might allow historians and the public to make history together rather than separately. Read More
30 March 2016 – David Hochfelder
public engagement, community history, digital history, The Public Historian, TPH 38.1, digital divide, "Chasing the Frontiers of Digital Technology" responses
In his article, “Chasing the Frontiers of Digital Technology: Public History Meets the Digital Divide,” Andrew Hurley does the public history community a great service. He does more than tell us a cautionary tale about rushing headlong into digital approaches to public history and leaving target audiences behind. Read More
25 March 2016 – editors 1
A personal perspective on the Flint water crisis
My thoughts on the Flint water crisis stem from a personal perspective, as well as my academic interests in deindustrialization, African American history, and heritage tourism. When I was two years old, my dad was offered a job as a reference librarian at the University of Michigan-Flint. Read More