I advance this as a serious proposition because of the challenges that confront us in 1997 and for the foreseeable future. I realize in saying this that public history already has ranged under it a number of specific careers. There are those who interpret historical exhibits for the National Park Service or provide research and writing for official bodies such as the Air Force or the Senate. There are professional historians working in archives and libraries as well as in records management. There are a couple of city historians in the country and many more historians in state and local historical societies, not to mention the important work of historic preservation and curriculum development.
Historians abound in the nation's museums and art galleries.
All of these jobs illuminate the close connection between historical scholarship and the public realm, but I have in mind something else. We all need to bear witness to our shared commitment to historical scholarship because the public has a great impact on our work and not nearly enough knowledge to form sound opinions about its importance or its quality. The many controversies of the past six years that began with the commemoration of the 1992 Columbus quincentenary have demonstrated this fact, and the disputes are continuing unabated. The editorial cited a leaked memo that claimed the American public only wanted traditional military exhibits. These issues are not going to disappear.