The History Teachers' Association of NSW - The History Teachers' Association of NSW

REVIEW

In History at the Crossroads public historians Paul Ashton and Paula Hamilton have put together an interesting survey that will be of great interest to History Extension teachers and their students. The eleven chapters deal with a range of topics, including History on Television, History in Museums, Cultural Tourism, Genealogy, Collecting Objects and Anniversaries and Celebrations.

The discussion explores, to varying degrees of depth, contemporary issues affecting history. How has the digital revolution transformed ‘historical production’? Why has the apparent decline in interest in formal history been accompanied by a growth in ‘pastmindedness’? Has history become more democratic, both in terms of subject matter and who produces it? These are just a few of the questions dealt with.

In the chapter on genealogy there is speculation about the role history may play in secular society – has it begun to replace religion as something that can offer meaning, identity and connections beyond one’s own lifetime? The popularity of anniversaries and celebrations such as Anzac Day may suggest a similar role in filling a vacuum.

The chapter on public history is particularly useful as a reminder to conservative students that formal written history is only one mode. It certainly offers a number of interesting comments that should help to broaden attempts to define history. For example, the British public historian Raphael Samuel is quoted proposing that

history is not the prerogative of the historian, nor even, as postmodernism contends, a historian’s ‘invention’. It is, rather, a social form of knowledge; the work, in any given instance, of a thousand hands.

Another historian, Ludmilla Jordanova, tells us that

We cannot dismiss public history as ‘mere’ popularisation, entertainment or propaganda. We need to develop coherent positions on the relationships between academic history, institutions such as museums, and popular culture.

The chapter on history in high schools may strike some as not especially insightful. There will be many teachers, for example, who will be puzzled by the concluding remark that ‘public history and ideas about historical consciousness … have only of late begun to filter into secondary schools’. There may also be some disappointment about the limited discussion around national curriculum. A final gripe with this chapter is that my name is spelt incorrectly in an endnote. Mind you, I notice that I am in good company – ‘Iuga Clendinnen’ was cited in a chapter 1 endnote.

While anyone who is already well-informed in any of the many areas dealt with in this book may feel that the treatment does not go to great depth, it does present a comprehensive and interesting survey of ‘history at the crossroads’. The discussion is accessible and could be very useful for History Extension students seeking both an up-to-date approach to contemporary issues in historiography and stimulating input to help shape a response to that eternal question, what is history?

Paul Kiem, HTA