Historians in Public - by Ian Tyrrell (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

From lagging book sales and shrinking job prospects to concerns over the discipline's "narrowness," myriad factors have been cited by historians as evidence that their profession is in decline in America. Ian Tyrrell's Historians in Public shows that this perceived threat to history is recurrent, exaggerated, and often misunderstood. In fact, history has adapted to and influenced the American public more than people--and often historians--realize.

Tyrrell's elegant history of the practice of American history traces debates, beginning shortly after the profession's emergence in American academia, about history's role in school curricula. He also examines the use of historians in and by the government and whether historians should utilize mass media such as film and radio to influence the general public. As Historians in Public shows, the utility of history is a distinctive theme throughout the history of the discipline, as is the attempt to be responsive to public issues among pressure groups.

A superb examination of the practice of American history since the turn of the century, Historians in Public uncovers the often tangled ways history-makers make history-both as artisans and as actors.

From the Back Cover

From lagging book sales and shrinking job prospects to concerns over the discipline's "narrowness," myriad factors have been cited by historians as evidence that their profession is in decline in America. Ian Tyrrell's Historians in Public shows that this perceived threat to history is recurrent, exaggerated, and often misunderstood. In fact, history has adapted to and influenced the American public more than people--and often historians--realize.
Tyrrell's elegant chronicle of the practice of American history traces debates, beginning shortly after the profession's emergence in American academia, about the discipline's public utility. He treats the perils of specialization, historians' responses to changes in the public's reading and writing of history, and their roles in school curricula. He also examines the use of historians in and by government and whether historians should utilize mass media such as film and radio to influence the general public. As Historians in Public shows, the utility of history is a distinctive theme throughout the history of the discipline, as is the attempt to be responsive to public issues among pressure groups.
A superb examination of the practice of American history since the turn of the century, Historians in Public uncovers the often tangled ways history-makers make history--both as artisans and as actors.

Review Quotes

"In this painstaking account of American historians and their relationship to the public, Ian Tyrrell seeks to place current controversies about the teaching, writing, and wide understanding of American history in context. He succeeds admirably."--Ellen Fitzpatrick "American Historical Review"

"The jeremiad that Tyrell effectively undercuts has grown more insistent since 1970, especially that aspect of it that alleges political bias. With the debate about 'who we are as a nation' made more urgent by the war in Iraq, any attempt to bring Tyrell's story forward from 1970 will need to grapple frontally with the ideological dimension. That attempt will have sound footing, provided by Historians in Public."--Sheldon Hackney "Journal of Interdisciplinary History"

"Tyrrell's book traces the arc of historical practice, historiographical fashion, and jeremiads about the decline of history . . . from Frederick Jackson Turner and John Franklin Jameson to the challenge of New Left historians. . . . His book deserves reflection and attention from all historians who ponder the profession's future as well as its past."--Jeffrey J. Crow "Journal of Southern History"

"Tyrrell's history is thoughtful and remarkably wide-ranging for an initial gambit into new territory. It immediately becomes an indispensable reference work, and the starting point for research on the public involvements of American historians."--Carl J. Guarneri "Public Historian"

"Tyrrell's study of the intricate relationship between American professional historians and the public offers an important corrective to the litanies of declinism that perforate most contemporary surveys of American historians. . . . Tyrrell's elegant saga is a must-read for all aspitring and practicing historians of the American past."--Ron Robin "Journal of American History"

"Historians in Public will immediately become an indispensable record of the discipline and practice of history in the United States. By uncovering a vast range of early initiatives that historians undertook to deal with issues that included the very practice of scholarship, the appropriateness of utilizing new mass media opportunities, state funding and support, political ideology, and 'the objectivity question, ' Ian Tyrrell has created a useful new history from which historians can think and act more creatively in the present."--David Thelen, Indiana University

--David Thelen "David Thelen" (3/23/2005 12:00:00 AM)

"To historians this book will be revelatory, and the larger American audience for history will be fascinated by this rich study of the profession's activities devoted to reaching a larger public--the schools, the media, the government, museums, book clubs, the national park system, and more. By digging in the archives and long forgotten publications, Ian Tyrrell has gotten behind the screen of generational jeremiads to give us a fair-minded and enormously illuminating history of professional history's place in American public life. It is an indispensable book. From now on, no one can speak with authority about the public side of the history profession ­or the humanities and social sciences professions more generally ­unless they have read this book."--Thomas Bender, New York University

--Thomas bender "Thomas Bender" (6/9/2005 12:00:00 AM)

About the Author

Ian Tyrrell is professor in the School of History at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. He is the author of five previous books, including Sobering Up: From Temperance to Prohibition in Antebellum America.