Final Thoughts about History 480: A Senior Seminar in Public History

Our assignment for the end of this course is to blog about our experience in public history this semester and what it has taught us about history more generally. I must start by saying that this course was nothing at all like I imagined it to be. When I signed up, I thought we were going to spend the semester talking about monuments and that the final project, though it was described as anything but a research paper, would end up being one anyway—I mean what humanities class doesn’t end with a paper or an essay exam—come on! Now as I think back through the fifteen weeks, complete with frustrations, surprises, and light-bulb moments (as I call them,) I sit here with a completely transformed understanding of history. This transition I have made is not the typical one from an understanding of history as facts and dates to one of analysis. (luckily, I made that one during my first history class at MSU). Instead, it is, at base, the ability to think back to Maria Leiby’s warning that “history is messy” and nod. This realization came about primarily from our class project. When Maria first warned our class that doing public history, which I have come to realize characterizes all of history, is messy, I thought, well how can history be messy? Everyone is dead. You just piece together various parts of the puzzle and you find answers to your questions. What I didn’t realize is how hard the pieces would be to track down, or how many interpretations and opinions these difference pieces would generate amongst those searching them out. Indeed, history is messy on two fronts: finding the information you think/know exists, and interpreting it amongst your peer group.

Thus, another lesson I have learned is that history is about people. In our class, we learned that history is about working with the people who have the information you need, no matter how inconvenient their schedules. It is also about working with one another to communication information found and agree on a common narrative. Even in my individual project, I am learning that sharing history with others is only possible if the historian is still alive to share what he/she has written! Which brings up another point, history is also about the people you share it with—audience. Audience is especially important in public history (which if you recall I said is all history) because its purpose is to share history with the public. Institutions and organizations that support history through public programs care more about how you as the historian plan to convey history to your audience, than how many facts, figures, and dates you know. I am learning this idea in writing my grant proposal. I am actually having to justify why the history I am studying matters and is useful. This is another lesson I have learned this semester, but really have always known—history is useful!! I try to have this argument with doubters and skeptics every now and again, and my fall back has always been that we can learn from the past to avoid future mistakes, but I would say that there is so much more to the story after this semester’s experience…

Now throughout the piece I have said that public history really is all history—and here is why I think so. What I learned through the I-496 project is how the small city of Lansing, MI was representative of larger themes in US history. However, these large themes don’t get to be themes without the same thing happening in several places. Figuring out the situation of the construction of a highway for Lansing, MI really has relevance for anyone interested in those general themes. Big ideas in history don’t get to be big without the small ideas which compose them. I guess I learned to think about history in this different way this semester—through the small ideas. Not just through macro themes, but in the everyday workings of human life and the passions and motivations that drive that life.

That being said, the overarching ideas make the small ideas count. I am thinking about history versus heritage here. Not only do we need to look for the small pieces to the history puzzle, but we also have to consider how they fit in with the narratives society is used to. And sometimes, the best way to convey history to an audience is to rely on those narratives, especially when you can’t find the small details to support what you are saying. History is never completely separable from heritage.

Ultimately I leave this semester with a little more preparation for the real world. And more of an understanding why all of these ideas I have spent four years learning and debating really matter to everyone outside of the ideal world that is Academia. Now, don’t get me wrong, I still am planning to be an academic, but now I feel I can take on that life mission with a different perspective. I feel I can actually engage my audience with ideas about history because I have a better understanding of their impact in reality.