Abstract

Popular presentations of history have recently been discovered as a new field of research, and even though interest in it has been growing noticeably very little has been published on this topic. This volume is one of the first to open up this new area of historical research, introducing some of the work that has emerged in Germany over the past few years. While mainly focusing on Germany (though not exclusively), the authors analyze different forms of popular historiographies and popular presentations of history since 1800 and the interrelation between popular and academic historiography, exploring in particular popular histories in different media and popular historiography as part of memory culture.

Sylvia Paletschek has been Professor in Modern History at the University of Freiburg (Germany) since 2001 and was Visiting Fellow at St. Antony’s College at Oxford University in 2006–2007. Her research interests include women’s and gender history, history of universities, memory culture, and history of historiography. Her publications include Women’s Emancipation Movements in the 19th Century: A European Perspective (with Bianka Pietrow-Ennker, Stanford University Press, 2004) and The Gender of Memory. Cultures of Remembrance in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Europe, (with Sylvia Schraut, Campus/Chicago University Press, 2008).

“This volume of essays provides a fine overview of research on popular history, one of the most methodologically innovative and exciting areas of research on German history…The authors maintain a high level of reflection in their articles, but also seem to have learned from popular history that historians must express themselves clearly, cogently, and in an enjoyable prose style. Specialists and students alike will find this volume highly useful.”  ·  Central European History

“… an important attempt within the German context to bridge this gulf [between popular and academic history] — or at least to bring popular historiographies under academic scrutiny — and to recognize their highly significant contribution to the development of modern culture. This interdisciplinary collection of uniformly impressive essays explores a wide range of topics…reinforces the degree to which history, in its myriad forms, shapes our identities and our understanding of the world in which we live.”  ·  German History

“These 12 contributions analyze topics ranging from soccer to world history, in the new spirit of popular historiographies. With their wide range of topics and publics, the essays can be seen as a democratization of the understanding of history.”  ·  Choice

“This book opens up an important new field of study (popular histories) which promises to contribute in a major way to the investigation of broader historical cultures. Its intertextuality and interdisciplinarity point the way for future research in this area.”  ·  Stefan Berger, University of Manchester