GHIL-Debates: Public History

The subject of this debate was the contested field of Public
History, its strengths, shortcomings, and developments, and the
place of history in public life in general. Academic and public
historians are increasingly involved in public debates seeking to
reach broader audiences and to shape public consciousness through
the understanding of the past. Undoubtedly the popularity of
history in public life has created political, economic, and
cultural opportunities. But it also generated competition and
barriers between the professional and the public historians. The
GHIL has invited four speakers from Britain and Germany: Franziska
Augstein is a journalist for the S\x81ddeutsche Zeitung (Munich)
and has written on nineteenth-century Britain; Kathleen Burk (UCL)
specialises on the twentieth century, in particular Anglo-American
relations; Justin Champion is head of department at Royal Holloway,
University of London, and works on early modern British and
European history; Peter Mandler (Cambridge) concentrates on British
cultural, intellectual, and social history since c.1800.