“Historians in Public will immediately become an indispensable record of the discipline and practice of history in the United States. By uncovering a vast range of early initiatives that historians undertook to deal with issues that included the very practice of scholarship, the appropriateness of utilizing new mass media opportunities, state funding and support, political ideology, and ‘the objectivity question,’ Ian Tyrrell has created a useful new history from which historians can think and act more creatively in the present.”--David Thelen, Indiana University

 

David Thelen | David Thelen

“To historians this book will be revelatory, and the larger American audience for history will be fascinated by this rich study of the profession’s activities devoted to reaching a larger public—the schools, the media, the government, museums, book clubs, the national park system, and more. By digging in the archives and long forgotten publications, Ian Tyrrell has gotten behind the screen of generational jeremiads to give us a fair-minded and enormously illuminating history of professional history’s place in American public life. It is an indispensable book. From now on, no one can speak with authority about the public side of the history profession ­or the humanities and social sciences professions more generally ­unless they have read this book.”--Thomas Bender, New York University

Thomas bender | Thomas Bender

"Tyrrell’s study of the intricate relationship between American professional historians and the public offers an important corrective to the litanies of declinism that perforate most contemporary surveys of American historians. . . . Tyrrell’s elegant saga is a must-read for all aspitring and practicing historians of the American past."

Ron Robin | Journal of American History

"The jeremiad that Tyrell effectively undercuts has grown more insistent since 1970, especially that aspect of it that alleges political bias. With the debate about ’who we are as a nation’ made more urgent by the war in Iraq, any attempt to bring Tyrell’s story forward from 1970 will need to grapple frontally with the ideological dimension. That attempt will have sound footing, provided by Historians in Public."

Sheldon Hackney | Journal of Interdisciplinary History

"Tyrrell’s history is thoughtful and remarkably wide-ranging for an initial gambit into new territory. It immediately becomes an indispensable reference work, and the starting point for research on the public involvements of American historians."

Carl J. Guarneri | Public Historian