Public History Now and Then

Abstract

MY INTRODUCTION TO PUBLIC HISTORY began in 1977 as a part of my work with the National Coordinating Committee for the Promotion of History, a consortium that had recently been organized by the American Historical Association (AHA), the Organization of American Historians (OAH), and several other historical groups. Its purpose was to find ways of addressing what had turned out to be a decade-long cycle of overproduction and underemployment of history doctorates which had come to be known as the "job crisis." By 1977 the crisis had deepened to such a degree that it seemed to have become a permanent condition of the historical profession, prodding even the most optimistic graduate faculties to cut back on enrollments or at least to issue warnings along with letters of acceptance to new doctoral students.