The Future of History The Future of History HISTORIANS, HISTORICAL ORGANIZATIONS, AND THE PROSPECTS FOR THE FIELD Conrad Edick Wright & Katheryn P. Viens, editors, Published by the Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston 2017 © 2017 Massachusetts Historical Society Contributors retain rights for their essays. Designed by Ondine Le Blanc Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Wright, Conrad Edick, editor of compilation. | Viens, Katheryn P., 1962- editor of compilation. Title: The future of history : historians, historical organizations, and prospects for the field / Conrad Edick Wright and Katheryn P. Viens, editors. Other titles: Historians, historical organizations, and prospects for the field Description: Boston : Massachusetts Historical Society, [2017] | Includes bibliographical references. Identifiers: LCCN 2017019926 | ISBN 9781936520114 (pbk.) Subjects: LCSH: History--Study and teaching. | Historians. | History--Societies, etc. Classification: LCC D16.2 .F87 2017 | DDC 907.1--dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017019926 Digital editions of this title are available at the MHS website. www.masshist.org/publications/future_history Katheryn P. Viens | Introduction: 1 Finding Meaning in the Past John Stauffer | History Is 8 the Activist’s Muse Richard Rabinowitz | History in Every 20 Sense: Public and Academic History Paul J. Erickson | History and the 31 Future of the Digital Humanities Louise Mirrer | What Does History 47 Cost and How Can We Pay for It? Gretchen Sullivan Sorin | The Future 57 of History: Egg Rolls, Egg Creams and Empanadas Debra Block | History Education 68 in the (Mis)Information Age Manisha Sinha | History 79 and Its Discontents John Lauritz Larson | The Feedback 89 Loop: Sharing the Process of Telling Stories Robert Townsend | Academic History’s 98 Challenges and Opportunities Stephen A. Marini | Reflections 110 on Historical Authority in the Digital Age Ellsworth H. Brown | Balancing 124 Multiple Income Streams Marilynn S. Johnson | Teaching 134 History in a Brave New World Cinnamon Catlin-Legutko | History 143 That Promotes Understanding in a Diverse Society Dennis A. Fiori | To Merge or Not 154 to Merge: A Cautionary Note Conrad Edick Wright | Afterword: 160 Lines That Connect, Not Divide Acknowledgments 163 vi The Future of History The Future of History HISTORIANS, HISTORICAL ORGANIZATIONS, AND THE PROSPECTS FOR THE FIELD Katheryn P. Viens Introduction: Finding Meaning in the Past ON MARCH 31, 2017, PBS Newshour aired an interview with Coron Bent- ley, an African American, Detroit autoworker who voiced his approval of President Trump’s economic policies. As he told correspondent William Brangham, “There was talk of [Ford’s] building a brand-new $700 million plant in Mexico, but, instead, they decided to invest that money in the plant that I work at. As Herbert Hoover once said, of all people, prosperity is right around the corner.”1 He gave a wry laugh. Bentley was optimistic that, this time, renewed prosperity awaited all Americans, and he ironically quoted the president whose policies were most implicated in deepening the Great Depression. Through the historical allusion, Bentley compared the present economic moment to the past while demonstrating his belief in the magnitude of ongoing positive change. He shared his thoughts from the wooden bench of a picnic table in an urban neighborhood park, with a playing field and soccer net visible in the background. A sense of history pervades American society, and it shows few signs of waning. Yet if this is the case, then why do many historians ex- Katheryn P. Viens is the Director of Research at the Massachusetts Historical Society. She formerly served as Executive Director of the New England Museum Association, the region’s professional organization for the field, and of the Old Colony Historical Society in Massachusetts. She has co-edited five essay collec- tions and is the author of several scholarly articles. She is currently a PhD candi- date in the American and New England Studies Program at Boston University. press alarm about the “fate” or “future” of history? Are these concerns warranted? Answering this question involves not only training our eyes on how history is being recalled, used, and enjoyed—and where, from university podiums and city playing fields alike. It also involves turning our attention to those who issue the warnings and asking if the history they would preserve is the history they see around them. In its simplest forms, history is both the practice of recovering the past and the thing that has been recalled: the birth, election, invention, tragedy, or triumph as it lives today in an image, artifact, document, or conversation. The past is all around us in the physical landscape of public monuments, libraries, and museums. It is also present in personal spaces—for example, at the kitchen doorjamb where pencil marks measure the growth of children long since moved away. It lives in scrapbooks and digital photo frames; in books and blogs, podcasts and websites; in live re-enactments, films, and video games set in historic moments. It lives in Congress and in classrooms. In society, history is ubiquitous and idiosyncratic. In this modern environment, those who earn a living in the field are distinctly divided. We could all just wade into this historical uni- verse and bathe ourselves in the riches of the past wherever they oc- cur. Instead, half of us are standing on the riverbank, fretting about the depth, the cold, and the choppy water, and aiming to throw a life preserver to our peers. Meanwhile, many of us in the water quickly find ourselves exhausted. As a field, we first need to make sense of this universe, to give order to the range of products and activities that history comprises, so that we can understand their significance and how we might respond. Too often, we categorize historical activities, including those we are in the process of developing ourselves, by the audiences they attract. Gaming is for teens and twenty-somethings. To develop a genealogy workshop, multiply the average age by three. This approach, however, leaves too many questions unanswered, including this: Why do many historical activities typically attract audiences that cut across age, gender, class, and racial lines? A more useful approach is to consider the role of history in people’s lives, nothing more, nothing less. If we ask of each 2 The Future of History history activity we encounter, “How are people of various ages using this history lesson in its current form and content?” and “What pur- pose does it serve?” we will come to know its value for the millions of Americans, like Coron Bentley, who engage with history every day. This approach allows us to organize historical activity according to its capacity to meet at least four basic human needs: to understand who we are as individuals and where we came from, to be part of a strong and vibrant community, to obtain respite, and to engage in civic life. All of us work to attain these things to varying degrees. Yet to satisfy our needs, it is not sufficient to call up the past or to enshrine it. Meeting these goals requires a deeper historical understanding. Finding meaning in the past is the essential activity for achieving self-awareness and a life that is in balance, building healthy com- munities, and forming a just and equitable civic society. We uncover the sacrifices our ancestors made to obtain an education, and the knowledge shapes our own work ethic. We learn of discrimination and violence that occurred in a prior era, and we discover lessons that help us make our present-day community a safe and friendly place. We study past decisions and find the proper means to address modern policy challenges. To find meaning in the past is, essentially, to build a bridge between then and now. Professional historians—not all of whom are academics!—are among those who best know how this process works. Whether they carry out their research and teaching in a university, museum, re- search library, secondary school, editorial project, or another setting, historians gain the experience of years of training, practice, and peer review. This process makes them uniquely qualified to apply a toolkit of foundational knowledge, research skills, and categories of analysis to tease meaning out of past events. When they express concern about the future of history, it is often because they are keenly aware of in- stances of missed insight where more accurate and useful meanings could be discovered from the past. At other times, they perceive an imbalance of priorities among individuals and communities that their knowledge of history teaches them is detrimental: the privileging of the self over community building or civic engagement, for example. They Viens | Introduction: Finding Meaning in the Past 3 are also highly attuned to situations in which participants profess to be uninterested in the past or consider history to be of little relative value. But who listens to historians anyway? Because the field demands extensive preparation, often including graduate study, historians attain a certain amount of cultural capital that this education provides. This places them in the company of policy makers, so-called “serious” jour- nalists, and even comic social critics whose education in Arts and Let- ters has given them, too, a foundation in historical knowledge, critical thinking, and research skills. Too often these groups self-identify and are recognized as intellectual “elites,” perched on the far side of a gulf that separates them from “ordinary” Americans who are visiting historic sites and reading, role-playing, and discussing history. To ask whether or not ordinary Americans are capable of finding meaning in the past because we observe that many members of the public lack a formal education is a moot point: they are already doing so. In this environment, what is the responsibility of professional histo- rians when they perceive that the resulting conclusions are incomplete or badly skewed? With the fate of individuals, communities, and civic order at stake, the matter is too important to let lie.