I was recently asked whether I considered myself a ‘public historian’, that is, am I committed to making history relevant and useful in the public sphere? My response was almost unflinchingly and emphatically yes, despite the contested nature of the term that means both a combination of academic shop window and media don, as well as something altogether more democratic. In the words of Ludamilla Jordanova, it is ‘all the means, deliberate and otherwise, through which those who are not professional historians acquire their sense of the past’.
My own lived experience of being a ‘public historian’ has been shaped over the past three decades by the rise of global challenges that demand the expertise and skills of the historian to take a long view on matters. These include Brexit and Europe, gender and race equality, the climate emergency, the rise of popularism, and even on understandings of the lifecycle, ageing, separation and loneliness – something that has been very acutely felt during the recent pandemic and lockdowns.
In other words, the role of the historian has never been more important in holding politicians to account and in understanding the very essence of humanity and the human condition.
Over the past 20 years, the way in which I do history has also been transformed in response to the seismic cultural shifts in the landscape of higher education. During this time, the critical humanities have been systematically devalued, while STEM has been lauded as some kind of 21st-century panacea. Historians are forced to address real world problems as measured through research, impact and knowledge exchange frameworks as well as public engagement and civic agendas. While it is tempting to blame philistine politicians and uncultured bureaucrats for these trends, it is these very agendas, as my scientist colleagues unwaveringly tell me that are a ‘gift’ to arts and humanities subjects.
As a Professor of Early Modern British History – who essentially plies his trade in rare 16th and 17th-century manuscripts and objects – I have actively embraced this agenda over the past decade, and reoriented my research to be make it more outward facing. As a result, my social role as a public historian has been in two main ways.
First, the world of heritage – working with historic sites and museums – has been an important pathway for translating my archival work for public benefit. Reconstructing narratives of the past is fundamental to people’s sense of self, community and identity – and thus it is imperative that these narratives be diverse, and that this diversity be reflected in a variety of sites where narratives are made. My work with the Universities of Lund, Leiden and Western Australia, at the V&A and the Vasa Museum in Stockholm sought to rais