WHAT EXACTLY, IS A PUBLIC HISTORIAN?
The term public historian was coined around 1980 to describe historians whose primary audience is public rather than academic. So, historians who teach at colleges and universities are generally termed academic historians while those who work at historic sites, museums, archives and other places where the public is the primary audience are termed public historians. That is not to say, however, that academic historians cannot work in the public realm, and, of course, many of them do. DO PUBLIC HISTORIANS GET INTO TROUBLE MORE OFTEN THAN ACADEMIC HISTORIANS? Probably, but that depends on your definition of “trouble.” Academic historians generally operate within an environment of freedom of thought and expression although they, too, often run afoul of the thought police. Public historians are more vulnerable to public criticism because they are more exposed to the public and do not enjoy the cover of “academic freedom,” although, of course, they should. Frankly, getting into “trouble” is
