David Glassberg

History and the Public: Legacies of the Progressive Era

In 1931 Carl Becker summoned his fellow professional historians to adapt their knowledge of the past to Mr. Everymans present needs. His call reflected a growing realization that the historical profession and the public had come to view history in fundamentally different ways. Contending that history in the academy and in public was in lowest common denominator the same, Becker attempted to counter his colleagues perceptions of an ever-widening gap between the two genres., In the half century since Beckers address, other historians have echoed his concern, wondering why communication between professional historians and the general public has steadily diminished even while the publics search for a usable past remains intense. In part, the divergence between professional historians and the public in the twentieth century has been a result of specialization and the concentration of historical scholarship within colleges and universities. As universities employed more historians, advancement in the historical profession resulted from publishing articles and monographs in specialized disciplines for fellow scholar-teachers across the nation, rather than participating in a variety of local historical enterprises for a general audience.2 Professional historians employed in federal agencies since the 1930s, in the National Archives, State Department, Pentagon, and National Park Service, also came to address their work largely to fellow specialists in government, universities, and historic preservation.