Public history

Abstract

Making PH means not only teaching or disseminating a certain type of concrete history applied in society to the problems dealing with the past and debated in the public arena, with the aspiration to reach and engage with a wider or selected audience and promote forms of citizen’s history. It also means making history in direct contact with the evolution of the mentality and sense of collective belonging of different communities worldwide and enhancing the study of their active identities and collective memories. This essay look at defining the discipline, at its historical roots and main transdisciplinary characteristics: its presentism with the importance of all pasts for today’s understanding, the engagement with local communities, the sharing of authority and the impact of the digital turn on the projects and practices of public history.