Hobert Kelly, a history professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara and one of the founders of public history, later recalled that he and his colleague wesley johnson had several long talks about this worrying prospect in the office. At that time, they hoped to find a new channel to expand the employment of graduate students majoring in history, so as to continue to attract young people who love history to study and keep the graduate program of the department alive, and it will not be cut or even cancelled by the school because of market factors. Kelly and Johnson believe that retaining the graduate program will ensure that "the history department will continue to be a place with ideological vitality" and expand the prospects of history research and history education. Public history is a way they put forward to save the graduate program of history department.
1976, Kelly and Johnson started the experiment of public history graduate program at the University of California, Santa Barbara with the three-year fund obtained from Rockefeller Foundation. At that time, the department enrolled the first batch of graduate students in history, 9 people. Because it is an experiment, the department initially only regards public history as one of the degree paths that students can freely choose (in other words, after choosing compulsory courses, students can choose between traditional thesis writing and public history training programs to decide their own path to complete their graduate degrees. )。 The original curriculum design still emphasizes the professional training of traditional history in basic knowledge, foreign languages, historical methods and historical data analysis. Even students who choose public history must complete these basic trainings and pass the traditional oral examination before entering the professional training stage. The course of public history major mainly includes two advanced seminars, one focuses on cultivating students' ability to engage in public history, and the other emphasizes the training of interdisciplinary research methods. According to Kelly's summary, in the first class, the professor and the students discussed the essence of public history and the professional ethics of public historians (specifically, how historians should adhere to the basic ethics of seeking truth in the face of strong external pressure). They specially invited some historians who have worked in the field of public affairs to express their views in class and share their practical experience with students. This course also requires students to go deep into the front line of "public * * *"-local government departments, communities, companies, enterprises and social organizations for internships, conduct "mission-oriented" research, and learn to deal with different institutions and groups (including government officials, social workers, archivists, journalists, etc.). ) access to research materials. The course also requires students to learn some administrative and management skills, including organizing seminars, editing briefings, writing articles for journals, and writing fund application reports. These skills are obviously not included in the traditional history graduate courses. Another seminar focuses on training students how to master and apply other social sciences and statistical methods in historical research. In addition, the project actively encourages students to broaden their knowledge, with special emphasis on teamwork. This kind of training brings students a brand-new postgraduate experience and feeling. Compared with the students trained in the traditional way in our department, students in public history programs can often build deeper personal friendship and teamwork spirit. After the course training, students leave school for a six-month paid internship and write research reports (similar papers) according to the internship content. The research projects of students' internship include: urban water rights, airport noise, the history of the civil service system in Los Angeles, the operation of the National Park Service and so on. These practices create favorable conditions for students to find jobs after graduation. After graduation, most of the top two students in the program found jobs consistent with the training objectives of the program.
Through this experimental project, Kelly and Johnson explored some new methods to train graduate students in public history, and also defined the concept of "public history" more clearly. In the first issue of The Historian of communist party published by 1978, Kelly first publicly used the concept of "public history" and defined it as follows:
In the simplest terms, public history refers to the employment of historians and historical methods used outside the academic system, such as government departments, private enterprises, media, local historical associations and museums, and even other private fields. Public historians work all the time, and they become a part of the "public process" by virtue of their professional knowledge. When a problem needs to be solved, a policy needs to be formulated, and the use of resources or the direction of action needs more effective planning, historians will be called. This is a public historian.
It can be seen that when Kelly uses the concept of "public history" at this time, he mainly refers to the application of historical knowledge and skills in places outside academia, including government agencies, private enterprises, mass media, folk history societies or organizations all over the country and various museums. It is worth noting that he regards the work of "public historian" as a part of "public process". What is an "open * * * process"? Kelly didn't explain, but it's not hard to understand. The "public affairs" here can be understood as "public affairs" (such as the decision-making of government departments and communities, the history teaching of primary and secondary schools supported by taxpayers, etc. ), "public society" (including media, movies, television, publishing industry, etc. ) and "public culture" (such as museums and historical sites open to the public. The job of public historians is to make use of their knowledge and skills to play a role in the "public sphere".
On the surface, Kelly's definition has the color of naked realism or utilitarianism, which is understandable in the background at that time. Kelly himself has no secrets about this. In the "Editor's Note" of the first issue of The Historian of the Communist Party of China, Johnson, who is also the initiator of the Chinese Communist Party's historiography movement, expounded the essence and definition of Chinese Communist Party's historiography. He pointed out that public history is "a new historical field with multiple dimensions", which can effectively combine many missing contents in traditional history training and apply the skills of historical research to a wider social field outside academia. He pointed out. The most basic feature of public history is that it is a historical discipline for the public interest. Then he listed eight "public areas" where historians can play a role: 1. Government agencies (helping governments at all levels to analyze and evaluate relevant policies); 2. Business (study the origin of business decisions, conduct policy analysis, and write the history of enterprise growth); 3. Research institutions (conducting specialized and targeted research, including oral history projects, etc.). ); 4. Media (providing historical research and knowledge for works of electroacoustic, film and print media, engaging in historical research and editing and publishing history books, etc. ); 5. Protection of historical sites (mapping, evaluation and environmental protection of historical sites); 6. Historical associations and family history associations, museums, etc. (Study local chronicles, historical exhibitions or local historical projects, provide professional consultation, conduct historical review, etc. ); 7. Archives and historical materials management (managing and presiding over the evaluation and management of historical materials and archives); 8. Teaching (teaching public history courses in universities to train talents). Johnson refuted the view that public history is understood as "applied history". In his view, it is meaningless to compare the relationship between academic history and public history to the so-called "basic research" and "practical research" in the field of natural science. There is no doubt that the training of public historians will include the content of "practice", but their work is also a kind of "basic research" and is also creating new knowledge; They also need to have the training and skills of professional historians, and the research methods used and the quality requirements for their own achievements are no different from those of traditional professional historians. The difference between them lies in their working environment: public historians must "learn to conceive and create topics in the research categories suggested by their funding agencies and employers", and they do not have the freedom to choose research topics at will that professional historians have. Even for the purpose of solving practical problems, Kelly and Johnson's initial definition of public history contains an important idea, that is, historians must apply their historical knowledge and skills to public-related affairs, and the history department of universities must assume a social responsibility and cultivate talents who master historical knowledge and can provide concrete practical help for public affairs. In other words, historiography must serve public undertakings, and historians should make a weighty voice in the field and discourse of public affairs, instead of hiding behind closed doors in ivory towers, speaking vernacular and being divorced from reality. Their definition of "public history" actually implies the meaning of "history is in the public", but this understanding will gradually evolve into a core concept of public history in a few years. In the discussion, Kelly quoted Fan En, an expert on American southern history at Yale University. Fan En Woodward and the famous historian John Hope. Historians such as John Hope Franklin illustrate the important role of public history in promoting social progress by taking the case of 1954 Brown v. Topeka Education Bureau as an example. But at that time, he and Johnson did not directly challenge professional historiography, nor did they regard public historiography as the opposite of professional historiography. On the contrary, they regard the history of public affairs as a branch of professional history, which is a natural extension of people who have been trained in professional history to enter the field of public affairs. In fact, in the early and mid-1970s, in addition to the University of California, Santa Barbara, other schools were also exploring new ways to train graduate students in history. For example, Auburn University set up a major in archival science in the history department at that time. Middle zennessee State University has set up the major of historical relics and heritage protection, but the Santa Barbara public history project directly puts forward the purpose and direction of public history teaching, which has played an important role in promoting the development of public history movement. It endows the public historian with a professional identity, and the public historian initiated by Johnson and others has built an excellent and important academic platform for the development of this field. During the period of 1978- 1980, a series of seminars on public history were held, which attracted professional historians and historians working in government departments, museums and archives. These meetings directly promoted the organization in the field of public history. 1980 In May, the National Committee for the History of the Communist Party of China (CPC) (NCPH) was established and became a professional academic group of CPC historians. After the establishment of the Society, the Historian of the Communist Party of China was regarded as the academic journal of the Society, and members' briefings were published and annual meetings were held, and cooperative relations were established with national historical professional organizations including the American Society of Historians (OAH) and the American Historical Society (AHA). The first thing NCPH did was to set up a nationwide network of public historians to encourage them to exchange teaching experience and research information, especially the syllabus, courses, practical projects and job opportunities of public historians. At the same time, it also undertakes the popularization and promotion of popular history education. During the period of1981-1985, NCPH published a quarterly magazine called "Public History Teaching", which encouraged universities to design and develop public history teaching and postgraduate programs according to their own actual conditions, and promoted the specialization of teaching in this field. 1986 NCPH published the report "American public history education: a guide", which listed the list and situation of public history courses offered by American universities. The report published by NCPH in 1990 pointed out that at that time, 54 universities in the United States offered public history majors. According to the information published on NCPH website 20 10, nearly 90 universities in the United States offer master's degree courses in public history, and at least 7 universities offer doctoral degree courses in public history.
The rapid development of public history teaching requires the establishment of teaching norms and evaluation standards for this new subject. 1988, NCPH set up a special evaluation committee (later renamed as "Professional Standards Committee") to investigate and collect data on universities with public history claimed by 150. However, due to the wide range of subject evaluation, the content setting of public history projects in colleges and universities is not uniform. In addition, there are professional organizations in other related disciplines (such as National Historical Heritage Protection Committee, American Museum Association, American Archivist Association, etc.). As a comprehensive professional organization, NCPH is inconvenient and unable to participate in the formulation of teaching evaluation standards in these specific fields, so public history evaluation has not been approved. However, NCPH did not give up the supervision of public history teaching. It has set up a special education committee, which is responsible for providing a platform for the teaching of public history and providing curriculum outlines and teaching reference materials for newly-built teaching projects. During the period of 2008-2009, NCPH Curriculum and Training Committee issued two important project proposals, which put forward guiding suggestions on the curriculum content and composition of master of public history and undergraduate programs respectively. The Proposal on Master's Training Program points out that the training of public history is very different from the traditional training of museum research, library science and archival science. Although public historians may work in public areas such as museums, their functions are different. In addition to mastering the skills of historical research, they must also have "a sensitivity to the interests of stakeholders" and "control the historical content from an ideological height". According to the suggestion, an ideal public history graduate program should provide students with solid basic training in historical content and research methods, and be oriented to gain educational experience and skills training. Students must be prepared to practice history in the "public sphere", which requires them to have a high degree of recognition and preparation for sharing authority, reflective educational practice, citizen participation, political sensitivity and other values.
Although the teaching plans of different schools are different, there are some similarities in their public history teaching. According to Constance Schuh, a professor of history at the University of South Carolina who has been engaged in public history teaching for a long time, public history teaching in the United States has reached a * * * understanding in terms of purpose, theme and composition. The purpose of public history is to train students to master the skills of traditional historical research, interpretation and writing, and to help them apply these skills to many public fields, so that historical knowledge and historical interpretation can help them think about practical problems and try to understand the original historical materials accurately. On the theme), the guiding principles of public history teaching are: the understanding and understanding of original historical materials are not limited to written materials, but include buildings, sites, scenes, cultural relics, oral memory, video materials, electronic documents, etc. Public historians must learn to think about specific historical issues and their details in the context of taking into account local, regional, nation-state, culture and theme history; The work of historians is often teamwork, and historians must learn to cooperate with others. In terms of teaching elements, the teaching of public history should be as follows: to ensure that students have excellent historical research and writing skills and are familiar with the historical development of at least one field; Students should master the theoretical principles and operational skills of research and work in a public field (such as museums, archives, companies or enterprises, historical sites); Students should have the opportunity to practice under the guidance of professionals. Judging from the process of practice, these understandings have indeed been carried out and implemented. Most public history projects are located in the history department, which ensures a solid history training. Almost all public history programs guarantee students the opportunity to participate in internships. Compared with traditional professional historians, public historians face different audiences. They must face different groups in the "public sphere" outside of academia and academia at the same time. Their research is not to satisfy their own pursuit of knowledge, but to provide clues and answers to meet practical needs. The materials used by public historians must be diversified and open, not limited to written historical materials. The syllabus of public history in many schools repeatedly emphasizes that students must attach importance to photos, movies, cultural relics, oral history, architectural structure drawings, environmental records and so on. And use them as analytical materials for historical research. In addition, the research methods of public history must be diversified and interdisciplinary. Many public history training programs specially increase the training in historical geography, art history, folklore, enterprise management, policy research, library and information management, etc. Naturally, in the era when public historiography began to rise, traditional professional historiography research also paid more and more attention to introducing new research methods and techniques from other disciplines. 1982, Bereft Bailyn, president of American Historical Society and professor of history department of Harvard University, called on historians to absorb and learn the research methods of statistics, literature, economics, psychology, anthropology and geography. However, as Schultz pointed out, the emergence of public historiography has played an important role in promoting the development of interdisciplinary historiography research model in American historiography. This is also confirmed by a large number of historical achievements of Gong * *.
The development of public history is not limited to the scope of teaching. In recent years, the emergence of some research monographs proves that public history has also made important contributions to the research of professional history, providing new ideas and new examples for exploring and deepening the research methods of public history. For example, John Bird Nair's Remodeling America: Memory, Remembrance and Patriotism in the 20th Century combines emerging memory studies, regional studies, ethnic studies and subculture studies to study different kinds of memories and symbols, and observes the formation and evolution of memories from three levels: community, region and country. David Glasberg wrote in John. Hopkins University received professional history training from traditional doctors, but eventually became a public historian. He has worked in Fort Titus National Park in Colorado for several years and has accumulated rich practical experience in public history. By studying the American memory and expression of different wars and the development of New England towns and California, he grasped the concept of "place" to analyze the formation and connotation of American public sense of history, and called his own research "new memory research" different from traditional memory research. In his view, traditional memory research focuses on the belief of a group or a mechanism in the past, while new memory research focuses on the interweaving and collision of different historical memories in public places. In other words, "region" is also a medium to organize and construct memory, and public history focuses on how the "traditions" of society, communities and groups are woven, that is, the so-called "traditional social organization". Cather. Stanton visited Lowell National Historical Park, an early textile base in the United States, and discussed the problems and solutions of presenting historical memories in this famous national heritage park. Robert Kirk described and analyzed the different memories of different groups of Americans about the Civil War. Ann Denkler combined race relations with public memory, showing the challenges faced by public historians in expressing history. At the same time, we can see that the development of public history is no longer limited to the United States, but also extended to Britain, Germany, Canada, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand, and has achieved considerable results. In particular, James recently published in The Historian. Meat thesis, investigation and management of "public history" projects, such as historical sites and museums in Shandong Province, China.