3/28 Reading: Thomas Cauvin, Public History: A Textbook of Practice / Historians as Consultants and Advisors

 3/28 Reading: 

Thomas Cauvin, Public History: A Textbook of Practice / 

Historians as Consultants and Advisors

---

Thomas Cauvin’s Public History: A Textbook of Practice; 

Chapter 12: Civic Engagement and Social Justice 

---

Citation: 

Cauvin, Thomas. Public history: A textbook of practice. New York, NY: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group, 2022. 

---

Chapter 12,“Civic Engagement and Social Justice: Historians as Activists,” of Thomas Cauvin’s Public History: A Textbook of Practice (2016) contains four subsections. The four subsections are titled as follows: “From Civic Engagement to Social Justice”; “Public History as a Source of Social Empowerment for Underrepresented Groups”; “Public Historians and Everyday Suffering”; and “History for Peace: Human Rights, Apologies, and Reconciliation.” In this blog post I will discuss themes and important pieces from each subjection of this chapter, in conjunction with thinking about Eatonville’s Historic Hungerford School Property. 

This specific chapter in Public History: A Textbook of Practice touches on one of this book's themes of public historians encountering challenges and ethical issues when working with different communities and different institutions. We were also tasked to read the introduction, “Introduction: Historian’s public Roles and Practices,” and chapter thirteen, “Historians as Consultants and Advisors: Clients, Courtroom, and Public Policy.” 

The introduction speaks on questions of the role of the historian and the issue of the distinction between history as an “interpretation of the past based on critical analysis of primary sources” versus the past as built on many sources that “fulfill diverse social and political needs” (Cauvin 2016, 1). Here, Cauvin states his purpose: to “re-assert the need for history– and historians” and “to show how historians can participate in public understanding of the past” (Cauvin 2016, 2). 

The introductory chapter touches on professional historians and covers the professionalization and institutionalization of history as a discipline, the concept of the “ivory tower,” the local history movement, applied history, the Public History movement (with local history, social engagement/activism, shared authority, memory, ), and the discusses the definition of public history debate. Chapter thirteen, “Historians as Consultants and Advisors: Clients, Courtroom, and Public Policy,” touches on topics regarding public historians with contracts and legal processes. 

(pages 230-248)

---

1. From Civic Engagement to Social Justice 

Public historians perform a public service by working for and with their audiences. There are various formats in which the uses of the past with the historians’ public service can take place. This portion touches on ethics and public history, speaking on the past and its contribution to group/individual identity (Cauvin 2016, 230). This portion also mentions activist historians, who argue that history can be used to improve the present and the future– with advancing the general progress of society as a main goal (reasoning that with this, historians can help people become better citizens). 

This portion introduces the people’s history movement with Raphael Samuel and his “objective to empower individuals and communities by making them actors of historical production” (Cauvin 2016, 231). Historical work can foster change, as Denis Meringolo argues– to create “more inclusive and more diverse representations of the past” (Cauvin 2016, 231). This chapter also argues that public historians can be more interventionist and act to change societies, participating in public policy and present-day social justice. This may be controversial, as historians' activism is often based on personal convictions. Chapter 12 mentions this, but it is important to note. The least that historians should do is that they should be aware that their activism on their work has an impact– and make that evident. 

---

2. Public History as a Source of Social Empowerment for Underrepresented Groups

This portion of chapter twelve mentions that there are an unlimited number of underrepresented groups in historical narratives– but proposes this portion to give some examples for improvement of practice in certain situations  and inform public historians about their role in social empowerment. This portion has subtopics titled “Native Populations”; “Looting and Repatriation”; “Migrants”; “Slavery and Segregation”; “Women and Gender History”; “LGBT, Queer and Sexual Practices”; and “Mainstream History”. For the purposes of this blog post, I will focus more on the following portion: “Slavery and Segregation.” 

Slavery and Segregation

In this portion the author reminds us of the “Children of Whitney” statues of slave children designed by artist Woodrow Nash, for Whitney Plantation, Louisiana in 2015. The purpose of these statues are “to remind visitors that slavery was not just about adults but also greatly affected children. The focus on children also comes from the fact that Whitney Plantation uses oral testimonies of former slaves from the U.S. Federal Writers’ Project in the 1930s. The majority of these former slaves were children at the time of  emancipation” (Cauvin 2016, 236).  In this portion, it is important to note he quotes Horowitz from 2013: “Americans  tend  to  focus  on  the  ‘big  house,’  the  mansion  and  gardens,  and  neglect the buildings out back ... If we lose slave dwellings, it’s that much easier to forget the slaves themselves” (Horwitz 2013).

This portion notes that some historians have extended the period of their studies from slavery to more of a long-term impact study and significance; the enduring impact of slavery. Just like our topic, this particular quote from this portion is similar regarding a 1994 museum in Cape Town– District Six– where their mission is to “mobilize the masses of ex-residents and their descendants into a movement of land restitution, community development and political consciousness' and their “recovery and restoration of memory is just as important as, and needs to be a vital component of, the recovery and restoration of land” (Cauvin 2016, 237).    

---

3. Public Historians and Everyday Suffering 

The “Public Historians and Everyday Suffering” portion of chapter twelve reminds readers that the relationships between past and present are the center of public history and that it is crucial for public historians to “take into consideration what the present motivations and demands of the public are” (Cauvin 2016, 239). 

---

4. History for Peace: Human Rights, Apologies, and Reconciliation

Links between our human history and human rights have strengthened in the last few decades, as argued by Cauvin. We must acknowledge things about our violent past– fostering public dialogue on issues in historical perspective. This subtopic can be boiled down to this one quote: 

Representing  and  discussing  the  history  of  human  rights  –  and  their  violation  –  has  a  direct  connection  with  democratic  engagement.  The  argument is that coming to terms with the violent past can help populations overcome past tensions and move towards better democratic systems (Cauvin 2016, 241). 

 

This chapter covers apologies and reconciliation as well. Historians can help create archives of truth, their work can lead to apologies,  contextualize representations of conflict, and so on. 

---