Transcripts For CSPAN3 Public History On The Early Republic 20160925

Microphone you to speak into, so it will get reported for , and all of your residence in oklahoma will be able to jump out of their chair when you speak. We will go in the order that people are listed in the program, so i will jump right in. Douglas bradburn holds a ba in history from the university of geneva and if each the in history from the in mercy of chicago. From 2005 to 2013, he taught in the History Department at beaman Temple University bennington use o university. He was named founding director of the Fred W Smith Library at mount vernon where he oversees Mount Vernons efforts to safeguard original washington many scripts and encourage scholarship about George Washington and the founding era, and develops outreach activities. He received the chancellors award for excellence in teaching in 2010 for his books include the citizenship resident revolution, politics of the creation and the american union, and early modern virginia, reconsidering the old dominion, published in 2011. Welcome, doug. [applause] dr. Bradburn i am used to play into a friendly audience in melbourne and. My goodness. As you see, mount vernon is in terrible shape here. So, mount vernon in had 1. 1, last year, it million visitors. It is in some ways the birthplace or one of the roots to the birthplace of modern nationalist or preservation. For those of you who dont know the story, it was a group of women who came together in the 1850s to raise the money to purchase the home and make it available for visitors. They achieved that goal in 1860, really remarkable at a time when women could not really even own property in their own rights in many states, and it is still a privateowned woman board, so there is one woman per se, not every state, and they are called vice regents. The chairman of the board is the region of melbourne in, so i work at a notforprofit Educational Institution Whose Mission is to preserve, restore, and manage the estate of George Washington to the highest standards and to educate visitors and people throughout the world about the life and legacy of George Washingtons of the his example, character, and leadership will continue to inform and inspire future generations. HasLadies Association restored the home. They have done a tremendous job of it. It changes every generation what that will mean for people who visit, and in the late 1990s, the Ladies Association decided to mountle coming vernon did not know enough about George Washington feared not have enough knowledge about him, so they decided to create an Education Center and museum, which they opened in 2006. On the heels of that, they said all of the modern president s president ial libraries. George washington its a president ial library. So they raised the money, 1. 6 million, to build a library, which was opened in 2013. I am the director of that library, which is one way to think of it is as a is eventual library, but of course it is not a president ial library because it is not managed by the National Archive system. It is part of the privately run mount vernon Ladies Association. The mount vernon ladies have never taken any government money, which is part of the ethos of preservation and private philanthropy. But they have this private mission in which they are trying to teach people. When i came on, i left an academic, senior job at bin ghamton, which is a wonderful school. I was the founding director, and the good news of that is the only be one, no matter what happens to me. [applause] dr. Bradburn [laughter] dr. Bradburn so that is good. I wanted them to think of their education strategy for the next five years when i came aboard. Vernon is, as i said, the most visited historic home in america, and here are some attendance numbers, kind of uptodate as they emerge. You can kind of get a sense from the light areas, which you probably cannot see. It is seasonal in the way it goes. Were just ending the high season of visitation now. Of the 1. 1 Million People who come to mount vernon, it is about 350,000 schoolkids in the age of eighth grade, typically. You do not get a lot of school , thoughn high school some fear it one of the things number and wants to do over the next five years is not only maintain attendance theyre not really interested in growing because the state cannot really manage more. It is an 18thcentury house that has been added onto, and a Million People going up and down the stairs is an ongoing challenge. Breachnted to develop through digital nanosphere that means a lot of different things, including the web, but as you can see some of the web page and you may cannot read these numbers, the alltime high in february was 1. 6 million that month. At 9to date, we are million web views, and that unique users. 3. 3 by the end of year, we should have 6 million unique users. This was an initiative that came out of the new ceo who came on after he hired me. He has a background in new media. He had come out of hollywood. That mountthings vernon had lagged behind was the digital creation. So to what content online that would bring people to the estate virtually in different ways and be educated, and part of what we do in the National Library deals with the development of those materials. I will talk a little but about that. Platforms. Lly means there are apps and of her ways of receiving information, and that is the crucial part of the strategies as mount vernon tries to expand its way to reach people and teach the stories of George Washington, and content is what is possible. We created virtual tools, some apps, and all different ways that people are engaging. Just to give you a sense, there has been a heavy investment in video, all kinds of video. Some of it is longform lectures, some of it is short, threeminute, you know, interviews about the whiskey rebellion by scholars who come through or how the gristmill works. In february ise 130,000 videos played the ish there in february 130,000 videos played. The George Washington library is a niche Resource Library focused on the founding era. I was saying to somebody i am not a public historian. N have never been to the i chp. I am an academic historian, but i am part of a great team of people who are public a story is in are engaged in the theory and thinking about it. I want to talk a little bit we are doing. Then i want to talk about what you all want to know, what you want to ask about public history today. I think it is a golden age in many ways. There are more books being published than ever before. There are more platforms to get published on. There is more resource s more Resources Available more broadly. There are more relevance, maybe not more, but as much as ever. Think, thatucial, i academic historians get out and help institutions and museums, make sure they are teaching it up to the latest standards of the profession and asking the best questions. Our library is intended to help do that. It is another resource for people. It is a small, niche like very focused on the founding, like i said. It used some of the different numbers. It is a place that has some great resources for research, particularly in the archives of the mount vernon Ladies Association, going back to 1850 and help us understand how americans have sought to tell the story of their founding. We are building a large collection of as well as for. He legacy t everyone is working on the National History day work, Pulitzer Prize in house fellows, which i will talk about a little bit as well. One of the Digital Projects is the guiding the George Washington digital encyclopedia. 450 digitalt has injuries. It is an encyclopedia that we want to continue to grow. We have over 5 million views. Ofs slide right here kind device the years up into 12month segments. The high bars are the yeartoyear growth that you are we see it being used widely by the general public, by students, file sorts of different folks mos. Most people are coming directly through Google Search or being or a direct way. There are occasions where people use social media and other ways to drive interest. I would encourage anybody who is interested in working on it to contact me, contact joe. We are always looking for good entries really broadly. If you think the story of the whiskey rebellion is not any good on our encyclopedia, write a new one. Or if you think we need to include the story of the money that is raised in havana to pay for the troops at yorktown, write it for us. You will find that historical institutions in your local Historical Society and museums, what they really lack is people who know the history. They have a lot of great Museum Professionals whom i have been trained in the history of the 20th century, and they end up at county Historical Societys i think the members of s. H. E. A. R. To offeral opportunity their expertise come if they are interested, and trying to improve in the Public Engagement to the history that we all care about their here is a general view of the faculty over a period of 2014 and 2015. You can see the attention to it, it is waxing and waning. Thingsee that when happen, like the sons of liberty awful,ed, abysmal, historically inaccurate mess sponsored by sam adams [laughter] dr. Bradburn when it aired, we saw a spike in people looking characters. That is a role that the encyclopedia can play. We wanted to be incited by lots of news sources. Newgreat thing about sources as it gives you lots of data. You can see who was working what, what is interesting to people. As academic historians, we have less ways to measure enthusiasm, but what exactly is driving interest . You can look at statebystate numbers, gender, ages, etc. We have our top entries in the encyclopedia, what are people asking about . You can kind of get the feedback in this world, which is really a fascinating to see. Move along to some of the public programming that we do in the library at health. It is a place where we try to get academics to engage directly with the general public audiences. Freef those ways is a booklet that we have every month that is streamed online and is reported and available in video form. Since we started doing it, we have had 36 different book talks. They are free and open to the general public. They have become so popular that they do not serve my purpose anymore, which is to welcome local people to the library. Now i have to move them all down to the big auditorium indian in the estate. Mary bilder, when she talks on madison in september, she has got 350 people already signed up to come to it, so it has really been a success in getting the local community we are really blessed in a location. You have a lot of people who are interested in history former government, former military in virginia they like to come out and see. It has really been an effort to mix popular authors with more academic books. Like a book that a typical public audience would never pick up, never know about, and never see, but they are coming to these events, and i want to try to do more. Much being published, that i find it difficult to schedule everything we want. We have a number of different symposiums, which bring together all sorts of different academic historians, as well as museum curators, preservationists, to present to a general public. But it is typically scholars and academics presenting in the general public, so we have to really that book ended the year. Bookend the that year. In the fall, we have the mount vernon symposium or in the spring, sorry, which focuses more on the history of decorative art, 18th century culture, on landscapes a kind of rotates. We have a number of partnerships, institutions which is crucial to be able to serve the educational mission. I want to mention the upcoming 6,very conference on october seventh, eighth. Mount vernon is opening a major slavery exhibit and the zmapp exhibit on october first. The partnership is to focus on slavery regionally, but when we do academic conferences, we also like to have a public evening. The first evening, the thursday night of the conference, will actually be in the auditorium, and the academic attendees will be there, but it will also be open to the general melbourne in public to comment in and engage. That is something i was try to enact. That is an example of one of the rooms of the library, we do a lot of other things, you know about the teacher support from melbourn mount vernon. We do events all over the country every year. We are providing a lot of materials digitally. There was a lot of talk about the hamilton way and how people can teach it. We have resources for people to connect songs to primary sources, that sort of thing. A lot of weight coming you get a lot more region that world of the development of digital materials during the other thing i do not know people want to talk about this or not that we do, is this Leadership Institute, which is different, i think. You all know that there are leadership tors of battlefield, like gettysburg and other places. Mount vernon now has a Leadership Institute in which we have had a number of different groups come through. Have had 33e different programs sense of 1200 people. We have had a true military groups, two government groups, and 17 business corporations. Gets a unique way to certain public engaged with the history of the founding, and i would love to talk more about it if you want to ask. Here is an example of one of the factory members, doug bradford, talking to the executive women in government group, and that is in the main reading room there. I want to conclude in empathizing that the importance of the Research Mission to all the different public programming that we do, we have a Research Fellows program, which scholars live on the ground of the in 2013. Ince we opened we have had over 63 scholars through there. Mr. Cooper mr. Cooper onemonth scholars, one month scholars, three month scholars, etc. We do study everything under the sun that you will see on the program of the academic conferences. They are incredibly important to a dynamic institution and sustainable educational environment. We use the fellows, they are interested in being part of our public and academic programs. They have been involved in symposium presentation, 12 have given what we call a luncheon fellowship presentation, in which scholars talk about their research to a group of members. We have a members only sneak peek of what the scholars have been working on. Four have been involved in academic conferences. 15 have written a cyclic the articles encyclopedia articles. Five have been lecturers in the Leadership Institute. Theave been involved in George Washington Teachers Institute as well. They are crucial for us to remain engaged and give people the latest argument. The notion of the library it is not a place fraser agar free, fors a place for a place geography, it is a place to stimulate. That is the goal. One of the other challenges is the need to make sure your matching your strategy with your available resources. Here are some of the people who have been Research Fellows. Among them he might see in the room here. Here is a program for next year. I try to have between 15 and 28 year. And here they are, doing things with the public in different ways. Conclude in a strong manner by saying that it has been really exciting to think about public history as an withmic historian and work a team together, a team of people who are passionate and engaged about the history of the founding era who are trained to find innovative ways to teach all sorts of different audiences. That is one of the key things. You have the key materials, make the program for the audience and deliver it on the platform that the audience wants to engage with it in. Those are the three principles we work with on. Excited to hear questions as we move forward, and i am excited and hear what public history actually is. [laughter] dr. Bradburn thank you. [applause] paul unfortunately, nancy davis from a Smithsonian Institution could not be with us today. She is not able to make feature. We wish her well. Our next speaker is marla miller. Thehas for in a from university of North Carolina at chapel hill. Andis professor of history the public history program, should she will be able to tell us what public history is. She wrote betsy ross and the making of america and the needles eye. She has been involved in several Major Research works. She is held fellowships from the National Endowment for electeds, and is an member of the massachusetts Historical Society. [applause] miller thank you three mustard i also have the honor of serving as the Vice President of the National Council for public history, so let me personally invite doug to the meeting at bloomington in the spring in vegas. [laughter] at miller i natural history. It energizes i encourage you to take a look at National History. It interjected as you. They have a blog called history at work. If you are interested, that is a great way to followup, and i would love to see you at those conferences so i was thinking about this session. Oh, i have got to put on my slides. Hmm. This. T need a hand with how do i get out of here . You never get out alive. [laughter] dr. Miller yeah. Where are they . Dr. Miller in that i do this . This . Then i do aha. We are getting there. So i started to think about what i would say at the thing time i started to prepare, as im sure many of you are, for fall classes here at i have been reading a lot of the New Fellowship and public history. Publicm seeing as trends right now, before i printed out, i want to give a shout out to a lot of my thinking about this started with the Current Issue of the journal. There is a lot of question about narrative, especially lori ginsburgs essay, where she talks about the preference of tidy versus messi narrative, which i found really productive. Another has findings, it is a great book, i heartily encourage you to read it am and what of his windings is that the public prefers messy. We have a notion that the public refers the tidy, but they really like to wade in and see what we are dealing with, pulling back the curtain and seeing the ambiguit and the contradiction, and that is when history comes alive for them. There is a lot of promising opportunity there. But today, i thought i would focus a little bit more on some ideas about relevancy that are prompted by nina simons new book the art of relevance, which i think will transform the museum community, asked earlier title, the participatory museum, did. Making the work we do feel relevant to contemporary audiences feared as simon reminds us, you cannot assign relevance by fiat. People choose what is relevant. Youmore precipitously argue your work, the more people fear otherwise. If you have to cry out history is relevant, you are already losing. My question this morning is how do we cocreated relevance with the audiences that we, as historians, serve . In my 10 minutes here, i thought i would share with you some news and thoughts about three areas that this is happening and could be happening even more, and by cocreation, i want to say i am not just thinking about the individuals who are consuming the narratives that we produce, but also with that historians can be partnering with other fields. So in these remarks today, i will talk a little bit about health care providers, criminal criminal justice reform, and the farming community. The first, thinking about partnerships and people working in health care. I have been inspired by some work by laura silverman, museums as therapeutic agents, which is a collaboration come about 20 years ago it was piloted among museums, social service agencies, and their clients. Do not see Museum Professionals as people trained to do therapy, but that is not the right. The point is partnering with ho do that work and think about how it is valuable. Verman introverts this there is a review of the wiley house where one of these projects was unfolded. Can we include that as the ultimate goal to support healthy immunities . Included theoject wily house for people with lifethreatening illnesses as well as their family and encourage and reflecting the parallels and appreciate the own experience historical precedents. For many of wileys participants, seeing the house, the sick room, and learning about the experiences that diseases like tb prompted meaningful connections to their own circumstances and historical connections. Much of my own work has been grounded in hadley, massachusetts at the house museum there, which already ordersts elizabeth order opium addiction. Museum partner with groups working to eliminate gaps in Addiction Treatment and recovery to develop programming for that audience . That is what i would like to seek your small museums will have to reinvent themselves going forward, and those partnerships are one promising way that that could happen. At umass, a collaboration that i have been especially excited about has been a series of partnerships with area Senior Centers, senior exploring historical reflection. There is a lot of scholarship and medical literature about the cognitive and emotional benefits of both life review and reminiscence, and that is the idea, the immediate reminiscing with other people but also the act of stepping back and looking over your whole life. But there is not much out there, and this is something that i would really like to explore, on the benefits of understanding your life. Is thatr trajectory extend beyond your own lifetime, and that is something i want to continue to pursue. Activated whenre people come to understand their life as part of something that extends beyond their lifetime . We have a small grant that allowed us to partner with three kinds of different senior serving institutions. One residential, one drop in, and one more of a retirement center, and bring artifacts from local collections into the museum or into the Senior Center for people who could not travel museum. We conducted a series of programs. Here is one participant looking at 18thcentury baby clothing. Talking about their own parenting experiences and try to think about how that reflection helps them situate their life on a longer timeline. Another good example on a more political front is eastern state penitentiary. What could be more important than intervening in what is arguably the most important civil rights history of our time . The history of incarceration could make contributions to the public understanding of this issue. In may, eastern state revealed its exhibit prisons today questions of the museums incarceration. It expands about contemporary mass incarceration and building what he calls the big graph, which is a very powerful landscape installation. Exhibit, prison today come in their words, sheds light on the issues. It looks that changes within the system, justice promotes i love, and give steps that visitors can take to help shape the evolution of the american criminal Justice System moving forward. Is consistent with the mission of the humanities action lab, which is basically neutral, which is leading an Extensive National collaboration around mass collaboration. In an interview around the work, the senior director of the International Coalition of conscience, said museums are a place where people can provide a contextxperience and a to help visitors have the conversation they need to have. So i am thinking wouldnt it be great if a prison just up the road here in connecticut, if it were in a position to engage in those public issues . We will work with historic Hampshire County exhibit, so the visits to visitors who come to the National Exhibit can also understand no worries. So that visitors who come to this National Exhibit can also understand the impact of incarceration on our local community. More broadly, the Harriet Beecher still center, which i hope youre all familiar with, has refined itself in ways to allow us to harness the legacy to address Current Community needs. Today, the site asks on its website, in the 21st century, inequity is everywhere. Do . Would stowe what will you do . The program has what the site calls 21st century parlor conversations, which are designed to inspire you to move from dialogue and debate to action on current social justice issues. Focus, promising area of certainly in my area, which is very agricultural, are those museums trying to engage food systems and food justice. So many museums that interpret the early republic are rural sites, that interpret history, and there is a movement to use these places to rethink the way we talk about food and farming. Some of this is as straightforward as partnering to offer farm share. Parkeman National Historic lisas farmland. There are dozens of examples of that sort of thing. But a more direct in revolutionary approach is the Martin Van Buren National Historic site in new york, thanks to the work of kathy stanton, who had an important study, plant yourself in my neighborhood, google that, show us how current debates and trends, farm tourism, the local food movement, and other things reflects long tensions that have shaped the history of the van buren site. Her report, which won the prize for excellence in consult ing, fixed to th period significance speaks to the period of significance. The study of the park, which later came out as an article in new york history, examines van burens farming practices. Past tos to engage the inform the present heard a Pilot Program helps visitors make other connections over Farm Succession and population loss and ideas about farm fertility. To wrap up, let me close with. Nother passage at its heart, building relevance is about living in the creative tension between evangelizing for the things you care about and listening with interest to what others care about. It is about radiating the inside out and inviting the outside in. As historians of the early republic, we should be listening that hard and looking for ways that the work we are so passionate about to be put into service to advance the interest of others. Thank you. [applause] paul thank you. Our final speaker is going to connect his tablet while i introduced him. It looks like it is going great. State historian of connecticut and a professor of history at the university of connecticut, a scholar of early american, specializing in new england and connecticut. He has written widely on topics related to colonial america. His book came out from unc press in 2010. He is the coauthor of teaching publishedth museums, by routledge in 2011. He received his ba from the university of florida, his phd in history from the university of connecticut. He has been the recipient of numerous fellowships, including the massachusetts historical the american antiquarian society, among others. He is an elected member of the National Historic society. Leot can also add eight c awards from his previous work in advertising. Lt is also the coeditor of commonplace, the acclaimed online journal of american life. Take it away. Dr. Woodward thank you, paul. [laughter] [applause] woodward as an academic historian, who is also the state historian of connecticut, i think i have one of the most interesting and demanding jobs that history can offer. It truly is history in the trenches. Along with doing the task one expects of a Research History professor, although with a reduced teaching load, i also serve on several history preservation and tourism commissions, one of which, marla, is trying to keep from sliding down the mine trail as we speak. I serve on a variety of public thenonprofit boards with most energetic and talented coeditor a person could have. I produce a bimonthly podcast on connecticut history, and important for this talk, i give from 40 to 75 public lectures every year, on a wide range of connecticut historyrelated topics. Recently, with the help of some very talented musical friends, we have expanded our offerings to include a new kind of history lecture, not about historical music, but elections which incorporates relevant and contemporary historic song into topical and thematic history subjects. I must say that these new subjects, along with a more traditional repertoire, ha have been very well received. Because i do so much of it, i thought a great deal about things that make public history lectures different from the history we axis with students and colleagues. That is where i want to talk about today. I want to begin by noting that at least in connecticut, the capacious appetite for the history of the early republic at a level of complexity some might find surprising, issues such as constitutional ratification, disestablishment, nullification, and slavery, the utopian movement, westward expansion, war and empire all of these and more readily find public audiences eager to learn about them and to discuss their implication on present experience. In my experience, this goes on with historians that have much deeper knowledge about them than they have, but and this is a big caveat only when the historian talking to them actually talks to them. Not his or her colleagues, not to his or her students, but to a public who listen differently n thosee differently tha with whom academic scholars interact on a daytoday basis. That there isact and a gulf between history public history. Im not sure that the aims and intentions are that much different and that the real divide i think times is a divide of language and communication, neither intent or content. Over the years, i have learned that i have to think about things differently when speaking whenthe public than i do speaking with scholars. Set aside some practices years with interaction with specialists have allowed me, and at the risk of sounding presumptive, i want to share the trust i get myself with me and invite further reflection and discussion on whether any might be useful outside of my universe of one. The first tip may or may not seem obvious talking to the public is not the same as teaching students. We historians are like other people. When encountering an unfamiliar situation, we often default to what we know. For that reason, many of my colleagues think of a public talk of a kind of undergraduate student lecture. It is not, and that has both good and bad features. Unlike the public, students have , lot of time and tuition money theres her someone elses, invested in our expertise and in less over the course of a semester we can convince them someone then differently, they will see us as experts in our fields. Talk over their heads, that is confirmation that we know so much more than they do. Dazzle them with what acs historical minutia, more mindnumbing roof that we really are experts. Public is not so tolerant or so ready to receive historians. They wanted to be the expert, in you have to prove you are ways they can clearly understand here to over their heads they will shut down. Give them minutia, they will start thinking about tomorrows to do list. In a public setting, your ishority over your topic only provisionally granted, granted fully only but willingly if you can present your argument clearly without relying on your traditional academic intellectual scaffolding. That is the bad news. The good news the public does not come to every class, see you can use all of your best jokes in one lecture. Point, i think this warns against one of the fundamental errors that makes us academics do not assume prior knowledge. As field specialists who spend most of our efforts community our efforts to other field specialists, we are privy to a wealth of Specialized Knowledge that shapes our discourse and allows us to move quickly into areas of complex and finely grained inquiry. We know, or at least assume, our colleagues share this background, so we can take awareness of this knowledge for granted and structure our arguments accordingly. That is not the case with a public audience, and that frequently produces one of two negative consequences. One is that we treat them like colleagues and talk to them about concepts and ideas that simultaneously baffle and irritate them, or we dont down our argument to a level of simplicity that insults their intelligence. Not inherently dimwitted because they did not go to graduate school in history. They are able to grasp sophisticated and deeply intellectual concepts as long as they are not house in what to them is an conference will discourse. The challenge for us as field experts is to transfer our deepest thinking into clearest expression, something the best historians among us do with regularity. Three, history is a fashion business dress down. Historians love ideas. Throughout my career as a historian, i have noticed that as a group, we tend to fall in love with one big idea at a time. That idea, once it is in the mode, becomes the subject of a papers and monographs, a ubiquitous concept that makes its way into all kinds of research, all forms of presentation. Here are some examples imperial history, self capital,g, cultural imagined communities, the middle ground, town studies, borderlands, transnationalism, whatevernialism big idea is currently in fashion becomes the topic we as a Group Explorer until we pretty much exhausted its possibilities. Then we move on to the next big thing. But while they are in fashion, we love them, and sharing them with each other as a way of are notthat we, too, just in touch. Unfortunately, the public does not share our fascination with intellectually fashionable his way, so unless you are prepared to and realtime laying considerable groundwork to help becomenitiated newly converted fashion he do not get all fashionable with the public. Tell your stories in ways that those not in the know and with no interest in being among the can appreciate. It will win you lots of style points. Hello, dear. Siri istelling me not available. I wonder what that means . Complexity is not clarity. One of the ways is to complicate our understanding of how things at work and what they happen here to this is not only a sure place o path of academic tenures how we got the periodic table so it is inherently a good thing. Just as complexity conserved to illuminate, can serve to illuminate, it can also cloud. Ofhonest with me how many you have ever sat for a conference thinking to yourself i have no idea what that person is talking about . Be brave. The rest of you register for an american studies conference coming to your neighborhood soon. [laughter] that encumber his ability sorry about that dr. Woodward that in comprehensibility sorry about that. [laughter] dr. Woodward it is a poison pill when trying to connect with the public. You reduce the ideals that are clear to talk about it clear to understand, so that synthesistellectual is deeply demanding and often not necessary when dealing with nationalists, but it is a poor nonpar presenting presenting to the public. 5 is a corollary to the preceding point. To borrow our concept loosely, nuance isis nuisance. Yes, we have long thought that this is because of such and such historical change, but i am arguing that in this iteration under these circumstances, the cause is not this but this and that. Mildly interesting to specialists, mindnumbing nuisance to most others. So unless you have a really solid reason to pepper the public with nuanced argument, tighten down, curb your enthusiasm. There is Something Else you might want to curb, too, and that is my final point park your biases at the door to as academics, most of us are privileged to live and work in communities of scholars who share generally progressive attitudes toward public and social justice. Because we are predominantly unified, similarly expressive attitudes toward politics and social because we are predominately unified in these views, we are comfortable incorporating progressive evaluations of contemporary politics and society as a sides into our conversations with and presentations to each other. Now, i am not talking about the advocacy done by the center and i am not talking about the kind of focused use of Historical Context for contemporary problems that you see at Eastern States penitentiary. When i am talking about is the gratuitous elbow in the rib kind of bias. People in thee room agrees saying Something Like all take Andrew Jackson over donald trump any day will probably get you a laugh. But its important to remember that, outside of the academy, the percentage of people who share our progressive disposition falls pretty rapidly to about 50 . Which suggests the same comments they get knowing appreciation from your colleagues may serve to brand you as an arrogant of feet intellectual with an agenda in the crowd. I know this happens because people come up and tell me what they really think on occasion after occasion. This may be especially true among conservative leaning audiences in history, whose readers among the general public are often predominantly male and they are often conservative. So wax political in a gratuitous sense at your own peril. So there they are, the sixth once i remind myself of when preparing to present for the early republic or in fact any history to a public audience. When we are composing as we talk, the form is always on the scale to fall back on the triedandtrue, to do what we know you but in public presentations, businesses usual may not be the right approach. But thats based on a sample size of one. I welcome your comments, evaluations, and dacians eval versions come accommodations. My following of these guidelines has been deeply rewarding. Thank you. [applause] now i will go see what siri wants. Some of my classmates will be waiting to talk to walt outside after the panel. [laughter] taughtdburn peter ona at several universities. He is a leading scholar of jefferson in nearly american republic, as all of you know. He is the author, coauthor and editor of numerous books, which i will not bother to list. Book published earlier this year. Back storyst of with the American History guide. Welcome. [applause] peter thanks, paul. Doug, now you know how you are supposed to perform thanks to walts brilliant presentation. Marla has told you what organizations to join and quickly. [laughter] right. And doug has shared of the bounty at the mount vernon library, a wonderful Historic Site. These are in many ways the best and worst of times. Goldentalking about the ages now. Americas already great, right . But there it is. Im biased [laughter] it is a moment a fantastic opportunity. My only quarrel with walt is i think the thing that he takes as a given is our relationship to our colleagues and our undergraduate students. That is a work in progress and i think we can all learn a lot by both the attitude, the styles of performance and how to reach two audiences and the kind of media that doug has at his for your tips and the associations that marla is talking about that we can form with institutions that would do us good. Its not just for them. It is for our souls, if i can risk a theological point. Because i dont think the standard model of history as a future has a future. Thats a larger subject we have an what is the future of our discipline. I think our friends in public history offer us some direction and that we should listen closely to them. Funding of all sorts, for all the good and wonderful things we do is at risk. We need to justify ourselves more than ever. Doug, ime key and not sure if i can come up with a definition of public history, but lets reach for the big one. Its all history. It should all richly broader public. How many of your students actually listen to . We shouldnt assume we have this magical connection. These poor idea that adolescents think we are really core. Really cool. They dont care. Building a naughty and listening is one of the things that walt mentioned. Its not that we are pandering. , and this is the kind of data that doug is describing, that they are analyzing at mount vernon. It needs to be lived in the immediate context of relating to other people. These are good clues to what people care about, doug. But we need to limit and i think that is in all the venues and context. Otherwise, it is the end of historians as we know them. By the time he has collected all these lectures at mount vernon, we can all retire. Can it be done forever . Of course not. But i think there is a real risk of redundancy in the challenge for us all. This is my schizophrenic sense of the state of the field. It has never, never been better than it is now. I can admit to that i can be board at any conference as much as anybody else and there is a lot of normal science that is truly boring. But on the other hand, there are so many people who have some a good things to say. It is an incredibly rich period. I think we also feel the frustration that the richness of our field, particularly the early republic, is not connecting as much as it needs to connect with a larger public. We have something to offer in the real question for us is how do we get to audiences . Audiences . Uild and i think the public experience offers a clue. So this isnt the definition of public history. I dont know if the therapy is complete, but keep this in mind. And you make a statement, if session withe this a clearer sense of his location [laughter] doug. Rt with next, the world. [laughter] i just want to conclude because i am just supposed to stimulate you all. In fact, i dont know what i am doing. [laughter] it is a metasaying trying to thing trying to comment on other peoples comments. It is a privilege to listen to people who really do it and even to listen to doug. I know doug well and he is always fun to listen to. And you know, apply for his scholarships. The key thing about mount vernon and i have to give a shout out to my dear friend at monticello oh [laughter] are one of the things in which this is the worst of times is getting jobs for new phds. We face an enormous crisis. And for whatever reason, the new inequality has some benign side as at, collateral benefit posted damage. And that is that there is a lot of nasty money out there that and to supportan an and no, like history. Thing,gd n like history. Offer aike doug can safe landing place, at least for the moment, and get good work at a people who will learn how to deal with public audiences. It is fabulous what he is doing with his people. There are not a lot of these places. But i have to say im glad im retiring. I have returned, because i wouldnt be able to place more. Tudents i have retired because i wouldnt be able to place more students. They can go to these public history institutions were they can learn. It is do it or die. That is my message, my big take away. And how we do it, how we get comfortur institutional zones were we love being the greatest authority, thats what freedom, a captive audience of uninterested kids. We have to conceal our biases and walt is exactly right. I have to put in a plug. There is some shameless self promotion and all of this. Isnt it true, doug . And thats on our radio program. We have a wonderful time talking about history. We never dumb it down. Its not that we are cooling our jets and being stupid and pandering. We have fun. Allison. And listen. It is not hard to avoid being offensive and insensitive. That, after all, is the good side of lyrical correctness. Weve learned how to be sensitive. There are a lot of people out there whose feelings can be hurt who will misunderstand you if you advertise your positions on current policy issues. I spent much of my life setting the founding and jefferson. And you know who is attracted to the founding. I wants anything more. [laughter] but i will say also and maybe as a final note ive learned so much from people of other disciplines who are conservative , particularly in political theory. Theres so much that we can learn from each other. There is so much of an audience with a rapacious appetite. Need toa complementary feed that appetite. And we have lots to bring to the table. And i urge us now to talk about what we do at that table in the future. Thank you. [applause] paul before the q a, i want to thank kate hohmann who organized this roundtable. I dont know that she knew this wouldve been a Group Intervention for doug. [laughter] but so much said the better. So for the q a come other will be someone coming around the room with a microphone so that will be preserved for posterity so that youre a coherent in tallahassee who is watching this on cspan can recognize your voice. So dont ask your question until you have the microphone in front of you. Make sure to tell us we are and where youre from. Welcome your questions, conversation about this great discussion on how we do the history of the early republic as public history and how we do public history as the history of the early republic. Craig. Oh, sorry. The microphone is over there. So you win. [laughter] thank you all. I have a little bit of a background in public history. In having myrested institution have an alliance with [indiscernible] and im having a problem reconciling the approach of my institution with the articulation. We are struggling to create that alliance. There are friends on both sides. But their goal in my institutions dont always connect. I wonder if you have any advice on how to bridge that gap so that we can create a system together, a program together rather than us trying to do we have a program that does interest ships for internships for museums. [indiscernible] good question. On the entrance of thing, let me mention that there is the new England Museum association that has undertaken a big object to review how internships are crafted. That report is going to come out later this summer. They have talked to a lot of people. I think is meant to be really corrective for all of us. So i would watch for that. A lot of that, as you know, is relationship building. It is spending a lot of time together and really coming to understand the constraints and priorities of the Partner Institution and that has to go both ways. I found that to be true, too. Our Partner Institutions dont always understand how constrained we are as academics. It looks at what have all the freedom in the world and the constraints of the academic calendar and burke and all kinds berpa and allnd kinds of things. So it really is spending a lot of time together. Often have to yield something that they find precious. So theres a great story that frank tells in the book about these sacred native objects. A curator having to learn everything about his training says they should stay preserved in the archives, and the native community wanted to use them in the ceremonies. It took him a long time to understand that the artifact only lives when it is used. So he had to let go some of the imperatives that he had been trained to embrace. Both sides have to be ready to give something and often it takes a long time to get there. I have a question for walt and then a question for the panel. What are your goals when you speak to the public . And possibly related to that is i was fascinated about the specific social Justice Project marla described. The one about the notion of citizenship, which is very much at the heart of this profession early in its creation and throughout most of the 20th century but has been lost over the last two or three generations . Early republican history play in that . Walt my goal in any gauge as a public historian is first of all can and content to their own lives. Make it interesting enough that people want to participate, that they want to know more. Talk witheave a in concept,ested hungry to find out more, and ready to come back, that is a victory for me. And the actual mission of the talk depends on what im asked to do, what the point is. Is a house in windsor, connecticut, that is being reinterpreted for the year 1810. With allen decorated reproduction artifacts. And touch, feel, play historic house, which is a era. Hing for our they asked me as part of the opening to talk about the year 1810 and it was a wonderful chance to expose people to the kind of federalist republican divide in connecticut, the fact that, though the bill of rights had been passed, connecticut still had an established church and we talk about those issues. ,hings which, for most people were new concepts. And when we talk about a historic house, they did not think about these issues that swirled around the people who were there. The political divide between federalist and republicans was quickly translated into contemporary politics. Not by me, but by them. Kinds of residences that stimulate of the conversations that really let us know we are succeeding. Doug can i speak to the question about citizenshipdoug . That is a big part of what they think they are doing, that they story,know the especially with George Washington. I became an educator because im sort of oldfashioned, i guess, and idealistic and the notion that education leads to good citizenship because people are informed and they have to govern themselves. I wrote a book about citizenship. The dissertation was called up of the problem of citizenship. Problem with the citizenship. Oh citizens from 41 countries add George Washingtons estate, i mean, the challenge i think is that civic memory is such an emotional thing. And people come there, they get emotional. Hold the past as this objective object that they want to look at, scientific, at a distance. The line of the emotional embrace, the meaning of history and how to and how it effects of people around you. The scientific history side of it. I cant say melbourne and does it perfectly in all last specs because it is a challenge to walk that line. And thats why trying to and i cant say melbourne and does aspectsctly in all its because it is a challenge to walk that line. About citizenship as much as it is about informing anybody who comes about the history. That is really the essence of the place. Walt i would add add, i agree with wald. When you talk about Church Establishment in connecticut, how fewearn about people really qualify for robust civic life, this can be a revelation. It will make problematic the major claims that the constitution was divinely inspired. That it is out actually a sausage. I made that point at a recent lecture. Lovede came up and said i your lecture, except i am in the sausage business. [laughter] he said im not as bad as the u. S. Constitution. [laughter] my question has to do with to marla instantly, but in general this question of oflth and the relationship relativism and presentism. Part of our job is to spend how is not atot the the present, but relates to it. Students areit, s oh, its just like no, its not just like you. The desire to make analogies to the present is useful on the one hand and destructive on the other. Also, as you are trying to raise money, you are pushed in in airection of relevance way that i would also like you to speak to come if you would. Marla thank you for that. I think what i would say is you can get beyond that analogy moment pretty quickly. But it can be a point of entry for people. Certainly not to say this is like that. But the point out that there are ornts of commonality questions, experiences that connect us over time, right . West, who i think hung the moon, the curator at kinderhook. She said this wonderful thing about history being an opportunity to build bridges between the living and the dead. And thats our principal aim as humanists. So its a point of departure to challengedsay we are with this situation, but we are not the first generation to have challenge. What worked before . What didnt . Whats different . But to have the opportunity to have a conversation. I am tempted to push back a little bit on the way we are talking about bias ise because neutrality itself a position and a fiction. I think we all understand it is a fiction. While i certainly understand that the winkwinknudgenudge thing needs to go. It is, among many things, annoying. But we should also seem to our position is both objective and neutral. Have to engage. I think we have to ignore that is part of our practice. Where does that fit in . So the point of departure is a way to show people that they have something in common with the past and that the past might have something to offer in order to think in a more looks way about the present. I will push back a little bit and say how we see our own authority. Yes, at some level we are being political in our practice, but that is accepted. When we deduce from that, we get to speak anything. We are public intellectuals. Because we know something that past, yes, sale out and say it proud what you know about the past and start a discussion. Once against going, if people want to make contemporary associations, you can push back on it. You can fight it. Im not ashamed to say things out loud to my duties or any group. But its not the possession of that kind of authority that i am your oped page. Im your editorial page. Listen to me because i know america. Walt can i add a mercenary doug can i add a mercenary article. In an institution, you need money to run it. If you dont get money to run it, it will collapse. Particularly if you are a private institution, like a place like mount vernon. Believedonors dont what youre doing is relevant, they arent going to give you money. If people dont come to mount vernon because i think that is just an old dead white guy and there is Something Else they could do with their time. There is an aspect of being aware of the need to sort of connect people. I like the way you talked about you listen to people and you thatthem make that bridge gap. But at the same time, mount vernon has resources that many other institutions dont have. We try to use social media now and be reflective of tim kaines i have videos of tim kaine talking about George Washington and what it means to him. News as it is going on in a way that you are trying to be aggressive in that way. But you are trying to show that this person is still relevant. So the money thing is really important. When it goes away, opportunities for scholarship go away. Opportunities for all kinds of all education disappears. Marla and to followup on that, the grant writing thing, and we talked a little bit about the definition of public history, which public historians debate all the time. [laughter] but one definition of it is that it is history that responds to need. Iences when we are in our academic mode, we think about questions that interest us and pursue them in a way that interest us and write about them in a way that interest us. But you start with what does the audience need. Grooves theng with on your institution, it is not starting with i think this thing is cool. Laws can i convince this thing is cool . Who else can i convince this thing is cool . Energy . The . Wheres the problem in your historyy and where can help advance their mission . Its easy to say we have a great idea, lets do it. Doug you have to think through what the Partners Mission is and what your mission is and how they are both being satisfied your thats the crucial thing. Thank you for some of the beat presentation. The number of museums is increasing. The number of programs is increasing. But visitation is decreasing. I wonder how the panel explained that. Is that shortterm. Is it economic. Is it middleclass. Or is it something permanently just moremusic with training people in the background to make them want to come to museums later in life . Walt let me start with that and marla can pick up on it. The fate of history and the interest in history is waning. And to some extent, it is the fault of an Academic Community that hasnt engaged at the public level enough to keep history interesting. History is being stripped out, at least in connecticut connecticut is turning it around because of active intervention from scholars and educators. But in many states, history is being stripped out of the curriculum in a stem world. Students who once got 12 years of history are now getting two or three, often in the early grades. By the time they get to college, they dont have a Historical Context to think about. They have lived to the formative years of their life without historical thinking. We have felt you know, we played the inside game more than we played the outside game. Welong as we are tenured, dont see these things as problems. We dont reach down into the k12 School Community word begins. Get tothe time people college, if they do not have a historical frame of reference, in my opinion, you wont pick it up again for most people until they are in their 40s or 50s and their own life is beginning to look like history. And then they often enter back through genealogy. I think this is a terribly serious issue that is already in mid progress. I think we really have to intervene vociferously to insisted that history needs to be part of the curriculum, primary and secondary schools. Marla i agree with that. I think in the museum community, the culture is just in this moment of flux. Museums are having to reinvent themselves. Waltindsor example that gave us is fantastic. Weve got all these reproductions. But what the public expects to be able to do in a Historic Site is really changing and changing fast. I think museums have to be able to keep up with that. Again, that means letting go of some of really cherished ideas about what people do. I think what the public wants to do is [indiscernible] i also want to add to your point about education, which is really important. One of the things that we have been talking about here are the ways that they academic marketplace, the job market is shrinking and the idea of getting more historians into public history venues, that is important. Are interested in that, you should look at the edge initiative. But we need to think about how to get historians everywhere. How do we get historians and policies think tanks and hospitals and . There is a much bigger market for historical insight than we tend to anticipate. I think we need to be thinking more broadly about getting phdholding people in business and engineering and just all throughout society. And that is going to help address some of the issues you are talking about. I am at mason from Brigham Young university. Walt and marla, but anyone on the panel to address, what seemed like attention in the presentations. We heard the public wants messiness more than we think they want aired but then we heard from walt that nuance is nuisance. Like possible tension. I would like to hear you guys address that. [indiscernible] [laughter] let me be a clear. You can be messy and be clear. And have aclear complicated argument. You havet do it to put clarity for a public audience as the first goal. Which means you have to question your own assumptions. That is a a talk scripted talk without thinking how are the people in front of me going to understand what im saying . I know what i mean to say. But how are the people im talking to going to hear it . And that is often made me stop in midsentence and say, wow, make these three sentences break it up, civil father words, thats too complicated. Simplify the words, thats too complicated. I edit myself. This is the kind of response about bias. Lecture, i put in a lot of really complicated concepts. But made them clear enough that the idea of a standing order, the idea of an Outcast Party that was established in connecticut through political of age, and in terms here you have two diametrically opposed Political Parties fighting for government in the first two decades. Ready for thewas constitution of 1818 and the removal of the established in 1776. So i was happy when the republicans took over. Politics own biases in that could have been a for to it is statement. My way of addressing conflict is to say, if you were a federalist, here is how you felt. If you are a republican, here is how you felt. And, boy, was it messy. Issues can beed presented in all their messiness to great effect. Marla yeah. Walt line made me think of a writer in we have Residence Program where we invite people to spend a week with us, people who have shown Great Success in communicating history to audiences. He was in seminar with my students and he said that one of when peoplees is say they want to couple key things. We should be searching for clarity, and a company edition. Its a thought was really wise. I think the way to thread this needle is to think about being genuine and transparent. Its not that the public cant stand a complicated story. Of course, they can. But its being genuine about here is what we know, heres what we think and here is what we actually dont know and here is where i am interpolating. But just being transparent about with the gaps are. So neither covering that up, glossing over the things that we are just kind of making up sometimes, but also not adding unnecessary detail which is so often fortuitous. Does i say, here are three other clever things i know. [laughter] when youre speaking before the public, they see right through that. Their time is precious and you are eating it up with your unnecessary text. So its really just being genuine. Kathy kelly, university of oklahoma. The panel. Mage for i want to ask a question yes, i understand the crisis in teaching. Yes, we need audiences. Yes, we have to think about money. And in thinking about the discussion here today and the discussion here today in conjunction with all the hamiltonia we have been enjoying in the last couple of days, it seems to me that one thread that runs through all of this is sort of a discussion of the audience. There is an audience that has needs and wants. How do we meet those needs . How do we satisfy those wants . How do we get that attention . How do we draw those dollars . Outaudience always exists there are preari, fully formed, and we react to it. Our friends in literary studies tell us that audiences are the public is often created by the textual production, by the museums, by the education. Im wondering for panelists today would reflect in the way in which we react to the audience at once and also how to shape and form that audience. Is all you know, mount vernon gives the George Washington book prize. Miranda aanuel special washington fries precisely because the prize was founded to encourage words on the early republic that are scholarly, but also accessible. Included in there is you can give it to films are documentaries or other media than books. But only books have been submitted since the George Washington book prize has been existence. Its in the name. The goal precisely is to find things that are building an audience. Vernon, there is this unicorn out there. When his hollywood going to make the great George Washington movie . Because that will build an audience, a capacity that we cant do. But then we can take advantage to her and that is exactly what the hamilton play is for mount vernon. The reason miranda won the prize was because we wanted it to be supported. We wanted it to be successful. We didnt get a hole or press and publicity for our giving the prize, which is one of the other reasons we do it. Because he won the macarthur genius grant two weeks before we announced it. [laughter] so our measly 50,000 on top of the 500,000 was grace ultimately. But i think one thing we are all very aware of is how do new groups all of a sudden just discover the history of these places . Its really hard for institutions come even ones with the capacity of mount vernon, to build an audience without creating great, exciting things . Thats one thing. Walt this is a digital world. We are all, like it or not, public,minated engagement in lots of things. Saying, sons of liberty, as bad as it was, through an audience. Tolstoy, warranties, said all history is auto war and peace, said all historys autobiography. There is not one history audience. There are hundreds of history audiences. It is a segmented market. And how you find your niches what we are altered to figure out. My niche has geographic borders. It starts on the Long Island Sound and it ends in the state to the north that really should be ours. [laughter] and the one in the east that was ours. [laughter] state, there are many different people passionate about many different aspects of history. And im not sure it is connecting with an audience. It is providing the type of product, the type of history that all those different audiences can respond to with enthusiasm and gusto. Marla i would second the point about niches. There are no audience in the singular. As will see things framed this is for general readers of the general public and i think this comes from [indiscernible] i think she makes this point in there that, you know, you are fooling yourself. If youre saying this is for general audiences are general readers, you are not thinking hard enough of who your audience is. You have to jewel down more deeply and the dachshund you have to drill down more deeply and think about the demographics. I think this builds on some of the other comments in the discussion about audiences. A conversion to what a lot of museums are grappling with. Want the i think we public to leave with more questions than answers. I think that sometimes is the history een between academic history. I think we are hearing Public Education and then public historys interpretation and discussion with an audience. I was wondering if you could all talk about bridging their particular gap. Going back to this idea of defining it. We are doing the same things. Is it about questions versus answers . Or discussions versus arguments . But what sort of language do we use to more effectively convey what history is and why the public should be invested . Im excited to see there are some people here. But to make this point that it is a semiotic relationship, the public history is effective in transmitting scholarship to a wider audience. I apologize. That turned into a long comment. But i think the key thing is questions versus answers in some ways. I can throw them back to you all and get your thoughts on that. That is something that has really been preoccupying me. Would say,ink i although this is harder with the early republic. In my work, my own research and writing is because the projects we take on is [indiscernible] i would say most public astorians would not the unidirectional. I think most historians see their work as Knowledge Corporation with audiences. Peopleare working with tocome up with the question, t ask the question even if it is the historian and the archivists who have [indiscernible] that shift that you are really thinking about what is at that intersection and not unidirectional. Walt i think the big thing is engagement. Had you get the peter i think the big thing is engagement. How do you get people to come back . Cook ration, i like that idea. But we are spoiled by captive audiences. Although we realize that the captives are insurgent now. [laughter] at mount vernon, one of the regular fights i get into oh, this is being recorded ok. With some of the members of the senior staff is this question of they will look at the google analytics. What are people searching for . And i always say, yeah, thats important, but we also need to help them know what they dont know that they should be searching for. And the investment in research, what we do is fundamental to helping people understand what they should be searching for. And ill give you a prosaic case any mount vernon case. How do you become sustainably relevant as an institution . They did the archaeology on the George Washington distillery. There was an archaeological report that was read by two or three academics on it was done. It was professionally done. Through that process, they decided to recreate the distillery and start distilling whiskey. So every time we launch a new all people are searching forl, George Washingtons whiskey. But without that 10year history in the Archaeological Research and the phds and the historians and the archivists who were able to discover that story and sell it, you dont get that later google for George Washington washingtonorge whiskey. The has to a direct mission that we, as scholars come are finding and interpreting new stories, have something to say to public history types. Because if it is the same all stuff over and over again, you are going to be dead in the water in a generation. Investment is the key. Int is what i worry about colonial williamsburg. We all depend on these is titians that do it. In terms of academics and public history, we have an introductory historic all message course. Every student in our program has take it. I am asked to talk to them about and what their potential role would be. I always start with one question. Why did you become a historian . And the answer is always some version of i became a historian reallyarch and write interesting and meaningful history. My second question is who are you writing it for . Who do you want to read your work . They stop for a while im a little over. Then the answers come back and almost always its, you know, the entire universe and the general public. Rarely if ever in fact, i dont think i ever heard, well, just historians. Flash forward five years and those people, we are getting ready to send them out into the world for a job. Now they know exactly who they are writing for. Their committee and then, hopefully, a very receptive faculty hiring committee. And a few years later, after significant revisions, and academic publisher. We teach graduate students to narrow their interest into the confines of the profession. The profession now, where told lots of people have made it clear with got to reverse that. We have to expand. In the aha risk for and the aha report on training made it fundamentally clear that valuing public history as an academic goal is crucial to the survival of the academic profession. Thative seen happen is now, faced with declining enrollments and unemployment, departments all over the country are getting it. But they are not yet prepared to go the next step of refining promotion and tenure and academic reward to make public history really a new copartner with really an equal partner. When that happens, the war is over. Your question is answered. Paul we only have time for one more question. The one thing i hope to think about afterwards is we have talked here about facetoface interaction, retail politics and its a digital world. All of us need to think more about how we are engaging with audiences we dont see dontoface and who we have any idea what they are interested in. How do they stumble across the talks that you set up on your website . So thinking about how public history works with audiences that you never actually meet is something that we need to think about. Ofthe last question is sort wanting to be in that position. I wanted to ask the question having to do with the environment, a word i dont think was mentioned. We were talking about how history is making the link between the past and the present. But the future is also part of our job. And i wonder how public historians can contribute to people thinking more seriously about what is coming, in light of the past and the present. And environmental history strikes me as important and, of course, walt teaches that course at uconn. To what degree all of us, no matter where we are located in the spectrum of the chronology of history, all of us may be could pay some attention to the history of the environment in our relative periods and what we know about human agency and what has happened to the environment in the process. It is a way to think about the climate discussion later this afternoon. Its simple for me. Id do teach environmental history. Englandy from new because of the massive outmigration to the western land that was caused by environmental degradation of the soil and the little ice age. I think there is a panel coming up, the year without a summer, you can tangibly see the effects of environmental abuse and Climate Change in the early republic in the first two decades. New england, its outmigration was considered by the governor of connecticut in 1817, the most serious problem the state faced. People knew things would be better in ohio and it would be much warmer. [laughter] they found out when they got there it was same latitude and lake effect snow. But they went anyway. Marla there was a conference i. Hink in newport it was called kiss me underwater where historians tackled Climate Change in rhode island. There were some park Service Initiatives trying to engage historians in Climate Change. I think there is a special issue last year inviting historians. I think historians are try to be heard in that discussion, which is taking place across a lot of other disciplines. Please join me in thanking our panelists. [applause] announcer youre watching American History tv all weekend every weekend on cspan 3. To join the conversation, like us on facebook. The National Museum of african American History and culture opened yesterday on the national mall. Africanamerican members of congress about the smithsonians newest museum. Congressman, how long have you been in congress . This will be the end of my 10th term. New africanow, the museum has taken some 10 years. Beenthink the support has long time ago. But it has reached a point where we are seeing the fruition of all the effort, all the interest come all the concerns and all the work that has gone into making it happen. So it is a great period in the history of our country. Its been 50 years since the passage of the civil rights act. The first African American presidency is coming to a close. How do you see the museum in terms of history . Well, the museum helps to integrate, if you will, africanamerican life as a part of the development of this great nation of ours. I mean, we have not reached the point yet where that Perfect Union has been established. But we continue to move towards it. We continue to see the potential of it becoming. And i think thats how this museum will integrate and work its way into the hearts and minds of all americans who will view this as a tremendous at the schmidt. Tremendous accomplishment. How it appointed do you think that it is located on the Washington Mall . I couldnt think of a better spot. [laughter] a better place. Partse all of those are of this great country of ours. Right inmuseum fits with all of the other edifices that are there. So i think it is in its rightful place. Worked does this museum meet you personally . What does this museum me to the mean to you personally . I grew up in rural america. I went to a oneroom school with one teacher. She taught the low prim or and the high primer all by herself. I played basketball on the ground in high school because we did not have a gym. The full the First School Bus i ever wrote on, mr. Dooley made it from a flatbed truck. That was our First School Bus in the town where i lived. And so this museum, which is a depiction of not only the struggles but the triumphs, the accomplishments, the achievement of africanamericans, give me a tremendous sense of pride. The director lives in my Congressional District when he is in illinois. , oak park, illinois is home for him. Afeel personally just tremendous sense of pride and terms of his leadership in accomplishing the development of this museum. I couldnt feel better. Congressman, thank you very much. Thank you. Announcer youre watching American History tv all weekend every week and on cspan 3. To join the conversation, next on American History tvs , reel america, why we fight, a series of films created during world war ii, created by director frank capra. The films were intended to explain to the troops the reasons behind the war effort, but were eventually shown to the American Public as well. It gives a brief history from the declaration