nov. 19

Caroline Brittingham

Digital History

19 November 2014

“ Writing History in the Digital Age”

“ I have a good deal of interest in how members of the public who are not academically trained historians “do history.” For me, then, “public history” does not mean just projects, programs, and exhibits created by professional historians for the public, but rather the very broad and complex intersection of “the public” with historical practice. Provision those occupying this intersection with freely available digital tools and platforms, and things become interesting quickly. Because setting up a blog, wiki, or discussion forum means only a few mouse clicks, and archival resources are increasingly digitized, we are seeing a burgeoning of sites that coalesce communities around historical topics of interest. Even those who have no interest in setting up their own websites can participate in history-specific Facebook groups, blogging communities, and genealogy sites.”

Personally, I found this quote from, “ Writing History in the Digital Age” the most interesting specifically because I myself am not a “Historian”. I write this blog post in irony to this quote. I say this because of the project I have created for this class. I have thought of two historical timelines concerning women and wanted to bring them together to show something profound from a historical stand-point. I have researched, gathered, and displayed information. However, is this not true history? Is my history in someway lesser than that of someone with a degree. I beg to disagree. I may not be a “historian” by trade, but I can still portray and have an interested to delve into history and share my findings with “the public” at large. Though, I think there is a line of expertise. Yes, my findings came from historical databases. These databases are derived from historians, no doubt. Because of this, I think that there is a subset of historians. This is where I fall into place. I am taking historian’s information and combining it with another historian’s findings to show something new. I think that larger, foundational historians’ work is not the place for non historians ( so to speak), but I also would not agree that history displayed from a non historian’s ( with the historical data) work should be considered unreliable or not real history. I think this idea expands history to the public to make it ever-interactive and alive.