Syllabus

H 542 Introduction to Public History

Monday, 5:45pm-8:25pm

Room CA 537

 

Professor:                     Dr. Melissa Bingmann

Office:                          CA 504N

Office Hours:               Monday, 1:00pm-2:00pm; Wednesday, 4:30pm-5:30pm

Office Telephone:         278-9024

E-mail:                          mbingman@iupui.edu

 

COURSE DESCRIPTION:

            This course is designed to provide the foundations of public history for students who are preparing for work outside of the academy. Students will learn the difference between public history and conventional history, discuss how public audiences use the past, and explore issues that confront public historians.  Public historians work with a variety of audiences to conduct research and develop historical products that could include museum exhibits, educational programs, school curricula, institutional histories, commemorative events, and video documentaries.  The research is no less academic, however, public historians’ creativity comes less from the project’s thesis or research than from the method of presentation.  This course will also help students develop skills for analyzing the variety of sources used in public history research and presentation.

 

READINGS:

 

The following are available in the IUPUI bookstore:

Roy Rosenzweig and David Thelen, The Presence of the Past: Popular Uses of History in American Life. Columbia University Press: New York, 1998.

David Glassberg, Sense of History:  The Place of the Past in American Life, 2001.

Presenting the Past:  Essays on History and the Public, ed. Susan Porter Benson, Stephen Brier, Roy Rosenzweig, 1986.

Edward T. Linenthal, The Unfinished Bombing:  Oklahoma City in American Memory, 2001.

Robert Rydell, All the World’s A Fair:  Visions of Empire at American International Expositions, 1876-1916, The University of Chicago Press, 1984

Erik Larson, The Devil in the White City:  Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America, 2003.

Nick Cullather, Secret History, 1999.

Stephanie Coontz, The Way We Never Were: American Families and the Nostalgia Trap BasicBooks:  New York, 1992.

Chris Wilson, The Myth of Santa Fe:  Creating a Modern Tradition, 1997. 

Artifacts & Analysis, Smithsonian Center for Education and Museum Studies. 

Donald Ritchie, Doing Oral History:  A Practical Guide, 2003.

 

In addition, there are several assigned articles that will be made available on reserve at the IUPUI Library and on the electronic reserve system. 

 

ASSIGNMENTS:

Class participation:

Students are expected to complete readings prior to each session in order to participate in discussion.  Your comprehension of readings that are not assessed by written assignments will be evaluated based on oral response and small group discussion. 

 

Written assignments for readings:

All written assignments are due one week after the class discussion.  Papers must be typed, edited, and demonstrate graduate-level writing skills.  Book reviews should be 1-2 pages, single-spaced.  Essay question answers should be 2-3 pages, single-spaced.  Book reviews need to focus on the assigned monograph, however, should also reference the assigned articles and additional readings. 

 

1.  Rosenzweig and Thelen, The Presence of the Past, review, due Sept. 13th

2.  Glassberg, Sense of History, review, due Sept. 20th

3.   Essay on “shared authority” based on the readings, due Sept. 27th

4.  Linenthal, The Unfinished Bombing, review, due Oct. 4th

5. Imposing the Past on the Present:  History, The Public, and the Columbus Quincentenary,”

    review, incorporating All the World’s A Fair, as appropriate, due Oct. 11th

6. Comparison paper of a monograph and popular history using All the World’s a Fair and Devil in

    the White City, due Oct. 18th

7.  Nick Cullather, Secret History, review, due Oct. 25th

8. Essay question on use/misuse, due Nov. 1st

9. Coontz, The Way We Never Were, review within the context of its use for policy formation, due Nov. 8th

10.  Wilson, The Myth of Santa Fe, review, due Nov. 22nd

 

Artifact Analysis assignments:

1.  Complete essay assignment 1, 2, or 3 from Artifacts & Analysis published by the Smithsonian Center for Education and Museum, due Nov. 22nd  (10 points)

2.   Research the provenance and provide an interpretation for an artifact at a local museum (details tba) (20 points), due Nov. 29.

 

Final project:

Each of you will be assigned to a group that will develop a consultant’s proposal for one of the following clients:

·        Cultural Heritage Trail

·        Campus History group

·        Indiana Black Exp. Inc.

 

The consultant’s proposal will include the following:

·        Historical background & plan for additional research

                  What do we already know about the client’s topic?

                  What sources are available for further research?

                  What research still needs to be done?

·        A needs assessment

                  Who is the audience?

                  What does the client hope to accomplish?

·        Program description

                  What programs will you develop?  Do you know of other comparable successful

                  models?  Be creative and apply what we have learned in class—think of potential

                  anniversaries, visual presentations, events, K-12 teachers, etc. 

·        Significance

                  How do your proposed programs meet the needs of your client?  What will be the

                  impact of your proposal?

·        Budget and budget narrative

                  What resources will you need to implement your programs? 

·        Management plan with timeline

                  Who will develop the programs?  When? 

·        Bibliography

·        Appendices

                        Sample mock-ups for programs (exhibit text & design, brochures, web pages, etc),

                        additional data to support your proposal, interview transcriptions, etc.

 

Fifty percent of each student’s grade will be based on the quality of the written proposal and oral presentation to the class and client.  The other 50% of your grade will come from your individual contribution to the project:

·        Each group member will conduct one oral history interview from a list developed by the group for the proposal.  As a group, you will need to get your project approved through IRB before conducting any interviews. 

·        A list of buildings/geographic areas that will need to be researched should be included in each proposal—each group member will research one building/land use history.

·        Annotated bibliography of sources—each group member will read and synthesize 2-3 books/articles that will contribute to the historical background necessary for developing the group proposal.

·        Needs assessment—in order to do this, each group member will need to interview at least one stakeholder, attend meetings, and find other methods for determining the clients’ need. 

 

ASSESSMENT:

Class participation                                                          20

Written summaries for reading assignments                    100

            (10 assignments/10 pts. each)

Artifact analysis assignments (2)                                      30     

Final project                                                                100

                                                                                     250

 

POLICIES:

 

Attendance is required and will be taken at class meetings. 

 

Cheating and plagiarism

Students who cheat or plagiarize will receive a zero for the work in question and will be reported to the Dean.  According to the Academic Handbook, Indiana University, August 2001, pp. 172-173, “Any student who fails to give credit for ideas or materials taken from another source is guilty of plagiarism.”  For comprehensive information on IUPUI’s policy on cheating and plagiarism consult Code of Student Rights, Responsibilities, and Conduct available on-line at http://hoosiers.iupui.edu/studcode/studcode.htm.

 

Incompletes

I will be very reluctant to give a grade of Incomplete (I).  I assign Incompletes only to students who have successfully completed most of the course work and who have been prevented by significant and unanticipated circumstances from finishing all of their assignments.

           

Classroom Courtesy

Please arrive on time and turn off cell phones and pagers prior to the beginning of class. 

 

Oncourse

I will post announcements and communicate through Oncourse.  Please check regularly. 

 

COURSE SCHEDULE:

 

August 30       How public audiences think about “the past”?

In this inaugural session we will discuss the various methods that public audiences use to pursue the past and how they use history in their everyday lives.

 

Readings:

Roy Rosensweig and David Thelen, The Presence of the Past: Popular Uses of History in

             American Life. Columbia University Press: New York, 1998.

 

Sept. 6             LABOR DAY

 

Sept. 13           Public history vs. conventional history

 

Readings:

            David Glassberg, Sense of History:  The Place of the Past in American Life, 2001.

 

Sept. 20           Using the past to create community dialogue & “shared authority”

 

Readings:

Michael Wallace, “Razor Ribbons, History Museums, and Civic Salvation,” in Mickey Mouse

             History: And Other Essays On American Memory. Temple University Press, 1996.

The Introduction to Michael Frisch, A Shared Authority: Essays on the Craft and Meaning of

             Oral and Public History. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1990.

Section III in Presenting the Past:  Essays on History and the Public, 1986, pp. 245-359.

 

Sept. 27           Commemoration & Memory

 

Readings:

Edward T. Linenthal, The Unfinished Bombing:  Oklahoma City in American Memory,  2001.        

Bob Weyeneth, “The Power of Apology and the Process of Historical Reconciliation,” The

            Public Historian 23 (Summer 2001), 9-38.

Michael H. Frisch, “The Memory of History,” Presenting the Past:  Essays on History and the Public, 1986.

Dwight Pitcaithely, “The American Civil War and the Preservation of Memory,” CRM 4 (2002):  5-9.

 

Oct 4               Historical Commemorations and voice

 

Readings:      

Robert Rydell, All the World’s A Fair:  Visions of Empire at American International Expositions,

1876-1916, The University of Chicago Press, 1984.  All read Intro, chapt 1-2 & Conclusion + 2 additional chapter to be assigned. 

“Imposing the Past on the Present:  History, The Public, and the Columbus Quincentenary.” The

            Public Historian 14 (Fall 1992): 5-90.

 

Oct. 11                        Popular history and film

            In-class viewing of “Murder at Harvard.”

 

Readings:      

Erik Larson, The Devil in the White City:  Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America, 2003.

Roy Rosenzweig, “Marketing the Past:  American Heritage and Popular History in the United States,” in Presenting the Past:  Essays on History and the Public, 1986.

Edward Countryman, “John Ford’s Drums Along the Mohawk:  The Making of an American Myth,” Presenting the Past:  Essays on History and the Public, 1986.

“History, Historians, and Visual Entertainment Media,” The Public Historian, pp. 9-26, 45-48, 79-102.

 

Oct. 18                        History for hire/use and misuse

This session will explore misuse of the past and the idea that working for clients can be construed by conventional historians as compromising the profession. Misuse can take the form of making false analogies, blurring the distinctions between reality and fiction for economic gain, and can occur when an historian knowingly distorts the past for the sake of a client or for political purposes. We will also discuss the misnomer that working for clients is inherently a “misuse” of the profession.

 

Readings:

Nick Cullather, Secret History, 1999.

Otis Graham Jr. “The Uses and Misuses of History: Roles in Policymaking.” The Public Historian (Spring 1983): 5-19.

                        , “Uses and Misuses of History in the Debate over Immigration Reform,” The Public Historian (Spring 1986): 41-64.

Hal Rothman, “Historian v.  Historian: Interpreting the Past in the Courtroom.” The Public

            Historian 15 (Spring 1993): 39-53.

Daniel Walkowitz, “Corporate History, or Giving History the Business,” in Presenting the

            Past:  Essays on History and the Public, 1986.

Michael Wallace, “The Politics of Public History,” Past Meet Present:  Essays about Historic

            Interpretation and Public Audiences, ed. Jo Blatti, 1987.  OR Michael Wallace, “Boat

            People:  Immigration History at the Statue of Liberty,” in Mickey Mouse History: And

            Other Essays On American Memory. Temple University Press: Philadelphia, 1996

 

Oct. 25            Historical Consultants

 

Readings:      

 

Guest Speaker(s):

   


Nov. 1             Gaining Historical Perspective on the Present: a public history approach to developing public policy

 

Readings:

Selections from Stephanie Coontz, The Way We Never Were: American Families and the

             Nostalgia Trap BasicBooks:   New York, 1992.  Introduction, chpts. 1-5, 10-11 & Epilogue

             (we will divide chpts. 6-9 among the class). 

James Anderson, “Historical Contexts for Contemporary Educational Policy,” paper presented at

                         the 2002 History of Education Society annual meeting in Pittsburgh, PA.

Edward D. Berkowitz, “History, Public Policy and Reality,” Journal of Social History 18 (1984): 

            79-89.

 

Nov. 8             Cultural Heritage tourism

 

Readings:

Chris Wilson, The Myth of Santa Fe:  Creating a Modern Tradition, 1997.  Introduction, chpts 1-

            3, 5-7.

Patricia Mooney-Melvin, “Harnessing the Romance of the Past: Preservation, Tourism, and

            History.” The Public Historian.

 

Nov. 15           Research skill development: Historic Preservation and researching historic buildings and land-use

 

Readings:

Chris Wilson, The Myth of Santa Fe:  Creating a Modern Tradition, 1997.  chpts. 4 & 8.

Michael Wallace, “Reflections on the History of Historic Preservation,” in Presenting the

            Past:  Essays on History and the Public, 1986.

Bruce Craig, “Politics in the Pumpkin Patch.” The Public Historian 12 (Winter 1990): 9-24.

Elizabeth Collins Cromley, “Public History and the Historic Preservation District,” in Past Meet

            Present:  Essays about Historic Interpretation and Public Audiences, ed. Jo Blatti, 1987.

 

Nov. 22           Researching skill development: Photograph, Artifact, Document Analysis

 

Readings:      

Artifacts & Analysis published by the Smithsonian Center for Education and Museum

            Studies.  Complete essay assignment 1, 2, or 3. 

Barbara Melosh and Christina Simmons, “Exhibiting Women’s History,” in Presenting the

            Past:  Essays on History and the Public, 1986.

 

Nov. 29           Individual group meetings with Professor

 

Dec. 6             Work on public history projects

 

Dec. 13           Final group presentations