Public and Popular History [Hardcover]

This interdisciplinary collection considers public and popular history within a global framework, seeking to understand considerations of local, domestic histories and the ways they interact with broader discourses. Grounded in particular local and national situations, the book addresses the issues associated with popular history in a globalised cultural world, such as: how the study of popular history might work in the future; new ways in which the terms popular and public might inform one another and nuance scholarship; transnational, intercultural models of pastness; cultural translatability; and the demand for high-quality work on new technologies and history.

A wide range of international contributors consider a broad selection of locale and media, from American television and Canadian heritage to the representation of history in contemporary Chinese culture. They consider the way in which the study of public or popular texts invoke multiple historiographies, and demonstrate our need to think about public and popular aspects of the past in new, emerging locales, such as China, Eastern Europe and South America.

This book was originally published as a special issue of the journal Rethinking History.

Introduction Jerome de Groot  1. The Making History initiative and Australian popular history Michelle Arrow  2. Intervention: Public Women and Public History: Revolution, Prostitution and Testimony in Cuba Carrie Hamilton  3. Going on an Outing: the Historic House and Queer Public History Alison Oram  4. A phantom freedom in a phantom modernity?: Protestant Missionaries, Domestic Ideology and Narratives of Modernity in an Arab Context Hoda Elsadda  5. Intervention: Some thoughts on the problem of popular/public history in Chinl��