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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Alison Atkinson-PhillipsORCiD, Professor Graham SmithORCiD
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
As public historians living and working in Britain, we live in interesting times. The last twelve years have seen political turbulence in the United Kingdom and its four constituent nations of England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. In this article, we aim to explain why understanding the role of the state in public history in Britain is important. In doing so we consider the current political and public history context, including the rise of non-university based public historians who are working across a range of sectors, as well as the relatively recent rise of taught public history at postgraduate levels within the universities. We do the above in the context of the cultural history wars that have raged in the United Kingdom over the last decade, and the possible links between this and the promotion of wider heritage activities through politically directed funding. We argue that a clear future task for public historians is work aimed at understanding the ways history is being used to shape public perceptions of the past, and how that plays out in the present.
Author(s): Atkinson-Phillips A, Smith G
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Public History Review
Year: 2023
Volume: 30
Pages: 22-30
Online publication date: 08/03/2024
Acceptance date: 25/01/2023
Date deposited: 21/08/2024
ISSN (electronic): 1833-4989
Publisher: U T S ePRESS (University of Technology Sydney)
URL: https://doi.org/10.5130/phrj.v30i0.8375
DOI: 10.5130/phrj.v30i0.8375
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