The Importance of Public Historians?

What is the importance of public historians and what do they actually do for society? I know that public historians must teach the public about history but why do we need public historians? As I began to read Alan Brinkley’s “Historians and Their Publics” as well as Ian Tyrrell’s “Historians in Public,” I soon was able to see that the role of a public historian is deeper than I anticipated. The great gap between historians and their audience is in need of fixing. I agree that history is generally hard to teach the honest truth since the truth can be upsetting and destroy false images of ones nation or comfortable myths, however it is very significant. It is public historians’ quest to help members of society break through their comfort zone and accept the past history despite it being uncomfortable. The fact that the public is turning to nonacademic writers only stresses the importance for historians to become more active in the nonacademic world.

People want to learn about history through ways that do not involve a textbook, myself included. With the advanced technology in this day and age, society is looking and expecting to learn and be entertained at the same time. By historians collaborating with the nonacademic world, the audience would broaden and reach more people. Public historians’ roles include spreading history and finding an audience to share their knowledge and love of history with. I feel that through technology, these goals can be met.

I found Brinkely's statement, “I have never believed that history offers ‘lessons’ in any conventional sense of that meaning,” very interesting since this is exactly how I described the purpose of history in class last Thursday. As a history minor and a future teacher, I disagree with Brinkely’s statement. I have always viewed history as teaching people ‘lessons’ and allows others to learn from past mistakes. I feel that by increasing your knowledge of the past, you can improve life and not repeat past events that had bad outcomes. I agree with Brinkely that we as a society and as individuals are affected by history everyday. It is undeniable that history is very powerful to society and all its members and we need public historians to help make that power relevant.