Clifford M. Kuhn
404-463-9204
812 General Classroom Building
hiscmk@panther.gsu.edu
Office Hours: Wednesday 3:00-415 and by appointment

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This seminar will introduce students to some of the key theoretical, methodological, and practical issues addressed by historians who work to bring history to a wider public beyond the scholarly community. These issues include questions of authority and audience in presenting history; the relationship between history and memory; the politics and ethics of doing public history; and the applications of history in diverse formats and media.

Course Requirements

Readings and class discussion

Students will come to class prepared to discuss the readings, and will have submitted comments or questions about the readings onto the class web site by midnight of the Tuesday before class. In addition, each student will help lead one class session. Attendance is mandatory.

Required books (available in college bookstore):


Benson, Brier, and Rosenzweig, Presenting the Past
Thelen and Rosenzweig, The Presence of the Past
Frisch, A Shared Authority
Linenthal, Preserving Memory: The Struggle to Create America's Holocaust Museum
Wallace, Mickey Mouse History and Other Essays on American Memory
Gardner and LaPaglia, Public History: Essays From the Field
Murtagh, Keeping Time: The History and Theory of Preservation in America
Nuttall, Negotiating the Past: The Making of Memory in South Africa

Note: Even though not everything in all the books is required reading for the course, you should eventually read all the books in their entirety.

Short papers

There will be three short papers (5-6 pp.): a review of a book on public history, a review of a history web site, and a treatment of the "Without Sanctuary" exhibit and related items. Papers will be graded for style, coherence, and proper usage of grammar and punctuation, as well as for content.

Research project

This is to be a paper (approximately 15 pp.) examining one example of public history presentation in Atlanta or Georgia, in light of what you've learned this semester. You will also introduce your subject to the class in an oral presentation. Subjects should be cleared with the instructor in advance.

Grading

• Book review: 15%
• Web site review: 15%
• Without Sanctuary: 20%
• Class participation: 15%
• Oral presentation: 10%
• Research project: 25%

The instructor reserves the right to make alternations in the syllabus as circumstances dictate.

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Schedule: Fall 2002

Aug 21 - Introduction

Aug 28 - What is public history?

• Wallace, Introduction, "Battlefields of Memory"
• Mooney-Melvin, "Professional Historians and the Challenge of Redefinition," and Schulz, "Becoming a Public Historian," both in Public History
• Introduction and O'Donnell, "Pitfalls along the Path of Public History," both in Presenting the Past
• Edward T. Linenthal, "Committing History to Public," The Journal of American History, Vol. 81, No. 3, (Dec., 1994), pp. 986-991 Use JSTOR.

Sep 4 - History and Memory

• Frisch, chapter 3
• Presence of the Past, Introduction, Afterthoughts, Appendix 2
• Roy Rosenzweig, "Popular Uses of History in the United States: Professional Historians and Popular Historymakers,"AHA Perspectives On-line (May 2000) www.theaha.org/perspectives/issues/2000/0005/0005spl2.cfm
• David Thelen, "Popular Uses of History in the United States: Individuals in History," AHA Perspectives On-line (May 2000) www.theaha.org/perspectives/issues/2000/0005/0005spl3.cfm

Before reading Presence of the Past and the Rosenzweig and Thelen articles, complete the survey at chnm.gmu.edu/survey/question.html and return by noon the day of class.

Sep 11 - Remembering September 11

Read about 9/11 has been and might be remembered and commemorated, and be prepared to discuss in class. Suggested starting points:

• www.mcny.org
• www.nyhistory.org
• www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/indiv/oral/sept11.html
• lcweb.loc.gov/folklife/nineelevenhome.html

Sep 18 - History and media: film and radio documentaries

• Guest presentation: George King, Director of "Goin' to Chicago," "Will the Circle Be Unbroken"
• Peter Gottlieb, review of "Goin' to Chicago," Journal of American History 82 (Dec. 1995), 1321-1323
• Frisch, Chapters 6, 7
• Seavey, "Film and Media Producers" in Public History
• www.unbrokencircle.org "Goin' to Chicago"(in media center)

Sep 25 - History and Popular Culture

• Wallace, Section II
• Articles by Rosenzweig, Brown, Countryman, and Breibart in Presenting the Past

Book review due

Oct 2 - Oral History

• Guest presentation: Todd Moye, Director, Tuskegee Airmen Oral History project, National Parks Service
• Frisch, Section II
• Shopes, "Oral History and Community Involvement," in Presenting the Past
• Diaz and Russell, "Oral Historians," in Public History

Oct 9 - Without Sanctuary

• www.emory.edu/WithoutSanctuaryExhibit/conference.html
• www.emory.edu/WithoutSanctuaryExhibit/index.html
• www.journale.com/withoutsanctuary/main.html

Oct 16 - Historic Preservation: Part 1

• Guest presentation: Frank Catroppa, Superintendent, Martin Luther King National Historic Site
• Murtagh, pp. 78-172
• Lee, "Historic Preservationists and Cultural Managers" and McDaniel, "At Historic Houses and Buildings," both in Public History

Without Sanctuary paper due

Oct 23 - Historic Preservation: Part 2

• Murtagh, pp. 11-77
• Wallace, Section III

Oct 30 - History and New Media

• chnm.gmu.edu/assets/historyessays/essaystoc.html
• Essays by Rosenzweig, O'Malley and Rosenzweig, and Smith
• Wallace, "The Virtual Past"

Nov 6 - Museums: History and Theory

• Wallace, Section I (except for "The Virtual Past")
• Frisch, Chapters 11, 13
• Linenthal, Preserving Memory

Web site evaluation due

Nov 13 - Museums: Practice

• Guest presentation: Andy Ambrose, interim director, Atlanta History Center
• Woodhouse, "Museum Curators"
• Franco, "In Urban Museums"
• Bryan, "In State Historical Agencies, Museums, and Societies"
• Bunche, "In Museums at the National Level," all in Public History
• Wallace, "The Battle of the Enola Gay"

Nov 20 - Public History in Comparative Perspective: The Case of South Africa

• Nuttall and Coetzee

Nov 27 - No class

Dec 4 - Historical drama

• Guest presenter Tom DeTitta, playwright, "Reach of Song" and director of World Communities Center for Community Based Theater, Georgia Southwestern University: canes.gsw.peachnet.edu/~world

Research papers due

Dec 7-16 - TBA student presentations

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Public History Bibliography (partial list)

• Bodnar, John. Remaking America: Public Memory, Commemoration, and Patriotism.
• Brown, Rodger. Ghost Dancing on the Cracker Circuit: The Culture of Festivals in the American South.
• Brundage, W. Fitzhugh. Where These Memories Grow: History, Memory, and Southern Identity.
• Dubin, Steven. Displays of Power: Memory and Amnesia in the American Museum.
• Fitch, James. Historical Preservation: Curatorial Management of the Built Environment.
• Gillis, John. Commemorations: The Politics of National Identity.
• Handler, Richard and Gable, Eric. The New History in an Old Museum: Creating the Past at Colonial Williamsburg.
• Harwit, Martin. An Exhibit Denied: Lobbying the History of Enola Gay.
• Hogan, Hiroshima in History and Memory.
• Horwitz, Tony. Confederates in the Attic.
• Kammen, Michael. Mystic Chords of Memory.
• Leon, Warren and Rosenzweig, Roy. History Museums in the United States: A Critical Assessment.
• Linenthal, Edward. History Wars: The Enola Gay and Other Battles for the American Past.
• Linenthal, Edward. Sacred Ground: Americans and their Battlefields.
• Loewen, James. Lies Across America: What our Historic Sites Get Wrong.
• Lowenthal, David. The Heritage Crusade and the Spoils of Memory.
• Moore, Arthur. The Powers of Preservation: New Life for Urban Historical Places.
• Nash, Gary, Crabtree, Charlotte, and Dunn, Rose. History on Trial: Culture Wars and the Teaching of the Past.
• Radical History Review. History from South Africa, RHR Vol. 46-47, Winter 1990. Also published as History from South Africa: Alternative Visions and Practices.
• Toplin, Brent, ed. Ken Burns' The Civil War: The Historians Respond.
• Toplin, Brent. History by Hollywood: The Use and Abuse of the American Past.
• Tyler, Norman. Historic Preservation: An Introduction to its History, Principles, and Practice.
• West, Patricia. Domesticating History: The Political Origins of America's House Museums.

Selected Public History Sites (partial list)

• Etowah Indian Mounds
• Ocmulgee National Monument
• Kolomoki Mounds
• Westville
• Savannah ­ many possibilities
• Fort Pulaski
• Augusta Cotton Exchange
• New Echota
• Robert Toombs House
• Alexander Stephens House
• Kennesaw Mountain
• Chickamauga
• Cyclorama
• Pickett's Mill
• Andersonville
• Atlanta History Center
• William Breman Jewish Heritage Museum
• Herndon Home
• World of Coca-Cola
• Margaret Mitchell House
• DeKalb Historical Society
• Columbus Museum
• Martin Luther King National Historic Site
• Agrirama
• Jarrell Plantation
• Chief Vann House
• Crawford Long Home
• Little White House
• Hay House
• Georgia Music Hall of Fame