Heritage and Public History

The presentation and use of the past outside the academy — in museums, heritage sites, media, and communities — and the critical study of the heritage industry.

Definition

Public history is the practice of researching, interpreting, and presenting the past for and with public audiences, while heritage refers to the selective valuing and preservation of the past as a cultural and economic resource.

Scope

This topic covers public history as a practice and heritage as both an industry and a field of analysis. It addresses how the past is curated and consumed at historic sites, museums, and reenactments, the tension between heritage and critical history, and debates over commodification, authenticity, and the democratization of historical knowledge.

Core questions

• How is the past produced and consumed outside academic history?
• What is the relationship between heritage and critical historical scholarship?
• Does the heritage industry distort the past through commodification and nostalgia?
• How can public history democratize the making of historical knowledge?

Key theories

The past as a foreign country

Lowenthal explored how the past is selectively preserved, reconstructed, and valued in the present, showing that heritage reshapes the past to meet contemporary needs.

Heritage as critique versus heritage as decline

Where Hewison saw the heritage boom as a symptom of nostalgic national decline, Samuel defended popular heritage as a vital, democratic form of historical engagement.

History

Public history emerged as a distinct professional field in the late 1970s, especially in the United States. In Britain the rapid growth of heritage attractions in the 1980s prompted Hewison's critique of a 'heritage industry' and Samuel's spirited defense of popular memory, debates that continue to frame the field.

Debates

Heritage versus history

Critics argue that heritage offers a sanitized, marketable past that crowds out critical history, while defenders see it as a legitimate and democratizing engagement with the past on its own terms.

Key figures

• David Lowenthal
• Raphael Samuel
• Robert Hewison

Seminal works

• lowenthal1985
• samuel1994
• hewison1987

Frequently asked questions

What is public history?

Public history is the professional practice of producing and presenting history for public audiences in settings such as museums, archives, heritage sites, media, and community projects.

Is heritage the same as history?

No. Heritage selectively values and preserves the past as a present resource, often for identity or tourism, whereas critical history aims at evidence-based analysis; the two overlap but can be in tension.