Public History

Massachusetts boasts a rich network of museums, archives, historical societies, documentary filmmakers, and historic preservation agencies, as well as one of the top public research universities in the nation. Since 1986, the Public History Program at the University of Massachusetts Amherst has provided a vital link between the University and the Commonwealth's wide variety of institutions that preserve and communicate history to the public.

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Anderson, Gail. Reinventing the Museum: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives on the Paradigm Shift. Lanham, MD: AltaMira Press, 2004.

Burns, Andrea A. From Storefront to Monument: Tracing the Public History of the Black Museum Movement. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2013.

Conn, Steven. Do Museums Still Need Objects? Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2010.

Dubrow, Gail L. Restoring Women’s History through Historic Preservation. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002.

Horton, James O., and Lois E. Horton. Slavery and Public History: The Tough Stuff of American Memory. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2008.

Hurley, Andrew. Beyond Preservation: Using Public History to Revitalize Inner Cities. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2010.

Kaufman, Ned. Place, Race, and Story: Essays on the Past and Future of Historic Preservation. London: Routledge, 2009.

King, Thomas F. Places That Count: Traditional Cultural Properties in Cultural Resource Management. Lanham, MD: AltaMira Press, 2003.

Lewis, Catherine M. The Changing Face of Public History: The Chicago Historical Society and the Transformation of an American Museum. DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 2005.

Linenthal, Edward T. Preserving Memory: The Struggle to Create America’s Holocaust Museum. New York: Columbia University Press, 2001.

Lonetree, Amy. Decolonizing Museums: Representing Native America in National and Tribal Museums. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2012.

Longstreth, Richard, ed. Cultural Landscapes: Balancing Nature and Heritage in Preservation Practice. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2008.

Page, Max. Giving Preservation A History: Histories of Historic Preservation in the United States. London: Routledge, 2003.

Pustz, Jennifer. Voices from the Back Stairs: Interpreting Servants’ Lives at Historic House Museums. DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 2009.

Schimickle, William D. The Politics of Historic Districts: A Primer for Grassroots Preservation. Lanham, MD: AltaMira Press, 2006.

Simon, Nina. The Participatory Museum. Museum 2.0, 2010.

Tyler, Norman. Historic Preservation: An Introduction to Its History, Principles, and Practice. 2nd ed. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1999.

Walker, William S. A Living Exhibition: The Smithsonian and the Transformation of the Universal Museum. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2013.

Weil, Stephen E. Making Museums Matter. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Books, 2002.

West, Patricia. Domesticating History: The Political Origins of America’s House Museums. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Books, 1999.