During the past two weeks, we’ve shared video clips about the nature of public history and the goals of a Public History Institute that CIC sponsored in August 2023. This week we invite you to dig a little deeper with a list of suggested readings.
During the Public History Institute, teams from seven CIC member colleges and universities gathered at Yale University for a program that focused on public interpretation(s) of American slavery and the legacies of slavery, with the goal of supporting public-facing projects in each community. Each team included two campus representatives (usually a faculty member or administrator and a librarian) plus a representative from a community-based nonprofit organization.
Before they arrived in New Haven, the teams were asked to read (or listen to) some background material about the public memory of slavery. This is not an exhaustive list—but a good starting place for anyone who wants to learn more.
PS: We don’t make any money from the links to individual books, which are included here as a convenience.
Books
- Gary B. Nash, Charlotte Crabtree, and Ross E. Dunn, History on Trial: Culture Wars and the Teaching of the Past (Vintage Books, 2000). LINK
- Cheryl Janifer LaRoche, Free Black Communities and the Underground Railroad: The Geography of Resistance (University of Illinois Press, 2013). LINK
- Clint Smith, How the Word is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2018) — recommended. LINK
- James Oliver Horton and Lois E. Horton, eds., Slavery and Public History: The Tough Stuff of American Memory (The New Press, 2006) — recommended. LINK
Articles
- Ira Berlin, “American Slavery in History and Memory and the Search for Social Justice,” The Journal of American History 90:4 (March 2004), pp. 1251-1268: https://doi.org/10.2307/3660347 (subscription required).
- Cheryl J. LaRoche and Michael L. Blakey. “Seizing Intellectual Power: The Dialogue at the New York African Burial Ground,” Historical Archaeology 31:3 (September 1997), pp. 84-106: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03374233 (subscription required) or free download.
- Clint Smith, “Monuments to the Unspeakable,” The Atlantic (December 2022), pp. 22-41: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/12/holocaust-remembrance-lessons-america/671893/ (subscription required).
Podcast:
- “The Legacy of Slavery and the Value of Black Life in America,” The Takeaway (January 24, 2017): https://www.wnyc.org/story/value-black-life-america/. Features Daina Ramey Berry, author of The Price for Their Pound of Flesh (Beacon Press, 2017): LINK.
- Alexis Okeowo, “How Saidiya Hartman Retells the History of Black Life,” The New Yorker (October 26, 2020): https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/10/26/how-saidiya-hartman-retells-the-history-of-black-life — available as article or podcast
