The Origins of "The Public Historian" and the National Council on Public History

Abstract

I HAVE BEEN ASKED to provide a brief history of the founding of this journal, The Public Historian, and of its sponsor, the National Council on Public History. The journal celebrated its twentieth anniversary last year, and the National Council marks its twentieth anniversary this year. I have also been asked to provide a brief overview of the development of this journal during its first decade, which coincides with my years as editor. In reviewing events of two decades ago, it is important to recall the many persons who were involved. I apologize if names of persons who played a role are inadvertently left out of this narrative. The genesis of both the journal and council was the emergence of the socalled "public history movement" in the middle and latter part of the 1970s. This came about in part because of the shortage of jobs for historians caused by an oversupply of trainees. I will never forget as a young assistant professor at Stanford attending a meeting in 1968 where the graduate dean announced with great gusto that we had just received a major grant from the Ford Foundation to expand our graduate programs.