Public and Academic History

by Phyllis K. Leffler, Joseph Brent

The fundamental changes which have occurred in the meaning of science over the past century and a half are examined in this text. Ways are suggested in which these changes must profoundly affect the discipline of history, and a practical model for historical inquiry arising out of these changes is proposed. These ideas demonstrate clearly the identical nature of the methodologies of both public and academic history, different as they may be in setting and purpose. They also provide a theoretical and practical basis for understanding history as a unified and scholarly discipline in a wide variety of contexts.

108 pages, Hardcover

First published July 1, 1990

About the author

Phyllis Leffler is the Director of the Institute for Public History and Professor at the University of Virginia. She is the co-author of Public and Academic History: A Philosophy and Paradigm (1991) and Public History Readings (1990) and has published award-winning articles in The Public Historian and the Virginia Magazine of History and Biography. She is the co-director of the Explorations in Black Leadership project at UVA (www.blackleadership.virginia.edu). Julian Bond is a prominent African American activist, politician, and teacher who served from 1998 to 2010 as the chairman of the National Association for the Advancement for Colored People and the co-director of the Explorations in Black Leadership project at UVA. He was also the first president of the Southern Poverty Law Center and served a combined twenty terms in both houses of the Georgia Legislature. Among his books are Gonna Sit at the Welcome Table: A Documentary History ofthe Civil Rights Movement (1995) and Lift Every Voice and Sing: A Celebration of the Negro National Anthem, 100 Years, 100 Voices (2000).