—
Active history is proud to present a video each week from New Directions in Active History. The conference took place at Huron University College on October 2-4, 2015 and brought together scholars, students, professionals and community members to discuss a wide range of topics pertaining to active history.
This week, Christopher Moore, a member of our opening plenary round table at the New Directions in Active History Conference, discusses what he feels active history means, and how it is applicable to bridge gaps within the profession of history as well as historians and the public. Moore lays out his perspective on how this can be accomplished through historical blogs and social media that engage with Public Policy.
—
—
Transcript
00:11
good evening I’m Christopher Morpher
00:14
those who came in late the topic we had
00:18
today was New Directions in active
00:21
history and when Tom first floated that
00:24
topic to me a while ago um I wasn’t
00:27
immediately bursting with a flame with
00:30
answers because actually I was kind of
00:33
satisfied with what I was getting from
00:34
active history I think it’s a Freddy
00:36
terrific website I look at it regularly
00:39
I link to it frequently the fact that
00:41
there is practically every day they have
00:45
scholars thinking about broadly public
00:48
policy issues or other kind of issues
00:49
and they put them out there for us so
00:52
regularly and so so easily available to
00:55
us that’s a pretty terrific thing that
00:58
was a that was about the substance of my
01:00
thoughts about active history before Tom
01:01
asked me to start thinking about it a
01:04
little bit further but I do think I’m
01:07
growing attached not only to the blog
01:09
but to the term active history I was
01:12
talking to the public history students
01:14
here in the public History Program at I
01:16
at Western across street yesterday and
01:22
raised the idea that I sometimes come
01:24
across that we sort of say well there
01:26
are there are academic historians and
01:28
there are there are public historians or
01:31
work in museums and historic sites and
01:33
I’m just a freelance writer I’m not sure
01:35
I really fit in those categories I
01:37
sometimes joke that maybe I’m a private
01:38
historian and but this kind of slicing
01:41
and dicing of academics and public and
01:44
private or and even the kind of
01:48
diversity that we have in the room here
01:49
the kind of people that have come the
01:50
fields that are people are in or or the
01:52
presentation that Keith gave us and
01:54
Wendy gave us and what I would do if I
01:57
talked about my process were we’re
01:59
coming from very different backgrounds
02:00
we do very different kinds of history
02:03
and I’m wondering if active history is
02:05
maybe a pretty good portmanteau word for
02:07
for for bridging those kind of
02:10
differences I certainly think there is a
02:12
field of I don’t know if pure history is
02:16
quite the right word for it but there is
02:18
certainly a a place for pure
02:21
unadulterated academic scholarship just
02:23
kick ass new
02:24
knowledge about history done in
02:26
dissertations and articles it is for a
02:28
small limited audience of fellow
02:31
historians and maybe active history is a
02:35
useful word for when those people are
02:38
trying to reach out to other audiences
02:39
or when people are doing what is these
02:42
days being defined as public history
02:44
when they’re doing community engaged
02:46
history I think maybe whenever we take
02:48
whatever kind of work we’re doing and
02:50
pitch it out to a to other audiences to
02:54
audiences who aren’t full-time
02:56
historians who I think we’re close to
03:00
active history because i think that the
03:02
kind of history i’ve practiced over the
03:04
years i kind of history i really value
03:05
is is one that recognizes that actually
03:09
as i said yesterday that that history is
03:11
a is a cultural sense as well as a
03:13
profession and a skill and something
03:16
that goes on in classrooms i think i
03:17
think as citizens we should cultivate a
03:20
sense of history in the same way we
03:21
sense cultivate a sense of music or
03:25
astronomy or athletics or whatever the
03:29
fields are of a well-rounded cultured
03:33
person I think I sense an appreciative
03:35
appreciation of history is is part of
03:37
that and I kind of am beginning to like
03:39
active history as when you engage with
03:42
history on that kind of level beyond
03:43
your our narrow or technical specialties
03:45
whatever they are then I think we’re
03:47
beginning to do something that that may
03:50
be active history is a pretty good word
03:51
for beyond that I think as I said active
03:56
history is a blog and when I heard Keith
03:59
and Jim and some of the other people who
04:02
were in at the beginning of active
04:04
history a number of years ago thinking
04:05
that we need to reconsider what active
04:09
history could be and what it might be I
04:12
began to realize that part of the reason
04:14
I asked me to be on the panel is in fact
04:15
that mine was the only blog they knew
04:18
about when they decided to start there
04:19
with a few years ago and I must admit I
04:22
have never had a substantial theoretical
04:24
basis for my blog I started it because
04:26
it amused me and I frankly it I don’t
04:29
have a very much more substantial a
04:30
program behind it even now but a few
04:34
things I began to think about about the
04:36
blog that is active history and I think
04:38
of the things I’ve noticed from my own
04:39
blog and the blog’s that I read
04:41
historical blogs I mean um I think maybe
04:46
there’s a problem that have active
04:48
history is trying to be a blog in which
04:51
those of us with historical knowledge
04:54
and historical skills and historical
04:56
ideas try to engage with public policy
04:58
issues which is a pretty good definition
05:00
of what that website has tried to do I
05:03
think we run up against the reality the
05:06
blogs tend to be narrowcasting I think
05:08
that to the extent that I know the
05:11
audience that comes to my blog and I
05:12
only do in a very informal kind of way
05:15
it’s it’s people who already take an
05:18
interest in my work or take an interest
05:19
in history I do write things about
05:22
public policy now and then on the blog
05:24
and elsewhere and I do know some
05:27
journalists and some politicians and
05:29
people who are more professionally
05:31
engaged with public policy but I find
05:33
those people don’t generally they’re not
05:35
I don’t find that they’re aware of stuff
05:37
i put on my blog because they really
05:39
don’t go to history blogs very much
05:41
their public policy people and I wonder
05:43
if maybe with that kind of narrow
05:46
casting reality that most history blogs
05:48
are read by people who are already
05:49
interested in history rather than people
05:51
are interested in public policy that
05:54
there’s a problem there that we’re still
05:55
just talking to ourselves even though in
05:57
contributing to active history want to
05:59
reach out to people who are more engaged
06:02
with public policy issues we may have an
06:07
issue there and I’d be interested in
06:08
your feedback on that as contributors to
06:10
and and consumers of active history and
06:13
I wonder if there could be ways that the
06:15
brand I hate to say brand extension or
06:18
something to add to a project that
06:21
started with the kind of ideas that the
06:22
active history did but just I think it
06:26
was yesterday Sarah Carter had really a
06:28
terrific piece I’m sure many of you have
06:30
seen it about how Syrians have been old
06:34
stock Canadians on the prairies of
06:36
Saskatchewan for at least a hundred
06:38
years and he had some wonderful examples
06:40
of that and it occurred to me that you
06:42
know there’s a piece it was a nice piece
06:45
on the active history site cut down to
06:49
800 words or something
06:51
that would be a hell of a piece in
06:52
Maclean’s magazine or some other kind of
06:55
widely read place the occasion doo-wop
06:59
ads on the CBC News website on the
07:01
walrus magazine in those kind of places
07:03
i think sometimes there are pieces in
07:05
active history which which could thrive
07:07
in in other media and tom once said to
07:12
me that he’s always thought of active
07:14
history as being the the anti dominion
07:17
institute and but in fact you know the
07:23
people who started the Dominion
07:24
Institute were really good about making
07:25
those connections with the media i
07:27
actually once was those same people
07:30
after it merged with historic Akane to
07:32
me and asked me to write a piece because
07:34
they’d already made a deal with
07:35
Maclean’s magazine to fill a page on it
07:38
was actually to do with the 200th
07:40
birthday of Johnny McDonald but they
07:41
asked me if I would write it for them
07:42
they kind of they take anything about
07:44
Johnny McDonald Aegis needed filled in
07:46
and I wonder if if the I know it’s a lot
07:49
of work to put onto a number of
07:50
volunteers but would the magazines I’ve
07:53
mentioned or maisonneuve or this
07:55
magazine or other perhaps even web
07:59
magazines that have a kind of wider
08:00
audience if there’s a way to leverage
08:01
some of the active history content out
08:03
to out to other sites and other places I
08:08
think people say the blog in fact is
08:11
dying is a medium I don’t think it’s
08:12
quite there yet because there are a fair
08:14
number of people who are kind of
08:15
addicted to it but clearly twitter has
08:17
eaten into the blog reading there is
08:20
Instagram there is tumblr there’s a
08:21
whole lot of other ways you can you can
08:23
pitch out content and people do so I do
08:26
think it’s time to start thinking about
08:28
whether the blog can be leveraged into
08:31
into other audiences and whether active
08:36
history and the community that
08:38
contributes to active history can can
08:41
think about other medians and other
08:42
other ways to take the knowledge that
08:45
historians have about public policy and
08:48
take it out to beyond the blog you might
08:51
say that was the pitch I wanted to make
08:54
to VU to the audience here now we said
08:57
it was going to be a panel discussion
08:58
and we haven’t had much of the
09:00
discussion part of it but I’m sure some
09:02
of you have contributed to the active
09:03
history blog I’m sure some of
09:05
you were around in the founding of it
09:06
you’ve been consumers all you have ideas
09:08
I think it’s time we started getting
09:09
some of that coming back to to Keith
09:12
about his ideas about community
09:15
engagement as as as active history to
09:20
what wendy was saying about many of us
09:23
here are from that kind of historic site
09:25
museum public history kind of background
09:27
how that connects with the definition
09:29
public history I think we need to we
09:31
need the audience to start getting
09:32
active on this point if we have a few
09:34
more minutes and what what kind of
09:36
directions you’ve been thinking about
09:37
for for active history and I didn’t
09:40
think I want to moderate that maybe Jim
09:41
can take over the microphone and keep
09:43
that going man what do you say
09:54
you
10:03
you
—
Previously published on Activehistory.ca and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
—
◊♦◊
Talk to you soon.
If you believe in the work we are doing here at The Good Men Project and want to join our calls on a regular basis, please join us as a Premium Member, today.
All Premium Members get to view The Good Men Project with NO ADS.
Need more info? A complete list of benefits is here.
—
Photo credit: Screenshot from video.