Place to Remember - (American Association for State and Local History) by Robert R Archibald (Paperback)

About the Book

Well-known public historian Robert Archibald's personal exploration of the intersections of history, memory, and community reveals how we participate in the making and sustaining of community as well as how we remember the community that shaped us. Writing in a rich literary n...

Book Synopsis

Well-known public historian Robert Archibald's personal exploration of the intersections of history, memory, and community reveals how we participate in the making and sustaining of community as well as how we remember the community that shaped us. Writing in a rich literary narrative, Archibald blends local history, personal reminiscence, and an analysis of the changing meaning of community with a passionate call for more effective public history. A Place to Remember poetically illustrates how we are active participants in the past and the role and importance of history in contemporary life.

Review Quotes

Archibald thinks that the time has come when public history organizations will be asked to take more responsibility in facilitating methods of doing public business. The skills needed to achieve consensus must inevitably take into account those experiences in the collective past which further understanding. His book is worth reading and studying by museum staffs and historical society boards, and I would urge that they circulate a copy and discuss it.

Archibald's quest for a public history that can produce empathy is stimulating and important....Written for a broad audience....A thought-provoking and creative work.

As historical organizations, such as the Organization of American Historians, reach out to involve more teachers of history at the secondary level and those working in public institutions, this book presents a wealth of ideas and examples by an impassioned leader in the public history field.

For anyone interested in history, and especially those involved with local historical societies, museums, and archives or with the preservation of historic places and sites, A Place to Remember is a worthwhile and inspired reminder to step back for a moment to view the essential role of history in our lives and communities, how it gives meaning to the present and connects us to the future.

Part meditation, part memoir, part social analysis, part panegyric, and a call to arms for all of us working in the field of public history.... Museums of all kinds would benefit from having key professional staff and trustees read this book.

This is a book that challenges public historians to think differently about their work and to define the very purpose of history as a component of civic culture. Whether we agree or disagree with his methods and conclusions, Archibald has offered a new vision for the role of history in our society.

This is a provocative book by an original historian whose personal voice and reflections will...grab readers...as human beings and historians at deeper levels than most books....My basic reaction was gratitude for being invited to think in fresh ways about problems all historians face as professionals and human beings.

While Archibald's message is aimed mainly at public historians and covers topics and issues with which both public and academic historians have wrestled for years, it should appeal to any reader interested in sustaining diverse communities in a complex world.

About the Author

Since 1988 Robert R. Archibald has been president and CEO of the Missouri Historical Society in St. Louis, Missouri. An active member of many professional and community organizations and author of The New Town Square: Museums and Communities in Transition (AltaMira 2004), he writes and speaks on numerous topics from history and historical practice to community building and environmental responsibility.