Popularizing the Past

Reviews / Votes

"Astute, informative, and skillfully researched, Witham's thought-provoking analysis will appeal to historians (and aspiring historians) who want a better grasp on the challenges and opportunities of history as a profession and the business of popular-history books." * Library Journal * "In his new book Popularizing the Past, historian Nick Witham sheds light on five particularly interesting historians' writing and publishing strategies during the mid-to-late twentieth century . . . Witham's readings of these five figures offer sensitive analysis and point to the key questions about politics and publishing." * Boston Review * "I am very taken with Nick Witham's illuminating book and hope that all practicing and aspiring US historians read it. Drawing on careful research and writing in sparkling prose that rivals his subjects', Witham examines how five prominent postwar historians navigated the challenges and rewards of scripting national narratives for audiences beyond the academy. For anyone interested in crafting intellectually robust, readable, and relevant scholarship, Popularizing the Past is essential reading."

-- Jennifer Ratner-Rosenhagen, author of American Nietzsche "A fascinating exploration of American historians searching for their publics and seeking to balance empirical depth and literary flair, scholarship and fame, objectivity and activism. Nick Witham's book is the most probing examination of these matters that I have read. Essential for understanding the importance and perils of writing popular history." -- Gary Gerstle, author of The Rise and Fall of the Neoliberal Order "Those dispirited by today's skirmishes over the American past should seek out Nick Witham's wonderful book on postwar history writing. His portrait of prominent scholars who wrote for the public offers a fresh take on popularization, presentism, and politicization-even as it underscores the essential work of histories that educate and engross readers."
-- Sarah E. Igo, author of The Known Citizen: A History of Privacy in Modern America "The argument of Witham's book is that the audience for popular historical nonfiction that explains America to itself has always been a diverse one, made up of various types of readers. The imagined past, when an idealised American reader relaxed by the fireside with a sturdy tome written by a credentialed academic, is, largely speaking, a fiction...The best parts of Popularizing the Past are the archival discoveries of letters from readers, and between editors and writers, showing the nitty-gritty of how this sausage got made - and eaten." * History Today * "[An] engaging, instructive account of the efforts by five postwar American academic historians - and, importantly, their editors and publishers - to reach a broader, non-scholarly audience with their work . . . . If historians wish to produce work that resonates with ordinary readers while being taken seriously by fellow specialists, it can be done. And for guidance on how to do it they could do worse than look to those who, three-quarters of a century ago, set about 'popularizing the past.'"
-- Fredrik Logevall * Times Literary Supplement * "Readers interested in the relationship between 'scholarly' and 'popular' history, as well as the practical and political uses to which historical understanding has been put, will find Popularizing the Past a worthwhile read. It usefully demonstrates that historians have engaged audiences both within and beyond academia in meaningful conversations about the nation's past." * Minnesota History * "Popularizing the Past draws from a rich archive: in addition to providing insightful analyses of the works themselves, Witham examines his subjects' collected papers, their correspondence with peers and readers, and-most significantly-records of the publication process: back-and-forth with editors over titles and scope, or suggestions for marketing. . . . Of particular note is Witham's analytical attention to this readership: both real and imagined. He traces the different ways popular history circulated. . . . But Witham also interrogates the mythic 'general reader' as imagined by publishers and by these authors themselves-and how this conception changed over time." * American Historical Review *