Digital Public History in the United States

Abstract

Digital history goes, by definition, beyond national frontiers, but can one de-cipher national specificities in its practices and projects? This chapter explores thebirth, development, and institutionalization of digital public history in the UnitedStates. Issued from a strong network of digital history practitioners, the success of digi-tal public history in the United States stemmed from its connection with pre-existingpublic history academic centers and projects. Through projects like theValley of theShadowor, later, the 9/11 Digital Archives, digital historians re-imagined the conceptof authority and relations with the public. The Center for History and New Media wascreated by Roy Rosenzweig in 1994 and rapidly became one of the main actors in themove from digital to digital public history. Finally, the chapter explores the future ofdigital public history in the United States, its institutionalization as a discipline, andits increased focus on user-generated projects.