Applied history is the effort to apply insights grounded in the study of the past to the challenges of the present, particularly in the area of policy-making. Applied history is closely associated with the field of

public history Public history is a broad range of activities undertaken by people with some training in the discipline of history who are generally working outside of specialized academic settings. Public history practice is deeply rooted in the areas of historic ...

, and the terms today are sometimes used interchangeably, though historically, public history has been a more encompassing term, engaging a broad range of audiences, subjects and methods, while applied history has been more narrowly focused on work associated with the development of domestic and foreign policy.

History

The term "applied history" was coined in 1909 by political scientist and historian Benjamin Shambaugh (1871-1940). A founding member of the Mississippi Valley Historical Association (today the

Organization of American Historians The Organization of American Historians (OAH), formerly known as the Mississippi Valley Historical Association, is the largest professional society dedicated to the teaching and study of American history. OAH's members in the U.S. and abroad incl ...

), Shambaugh edited its proceedings from 1909 to 1914 and served as its president in 1909-1910. In 1912, Shambaugh, then superintendent of the State Historical Society of Iowa, launched the publication ''Applied History'', a series that ran until 1930. Shambaugh defined applied history as "the use of the scientific knowledge of history and experience in efforts to solve present problems of human betterment." Examples included legislative reference work and policy analysis, as well as the creation and stewardship of public archives, and the practice of state and local history. Richard Neustadt

The ''Applied History'' series, and related efforts, lost funding during the Great Depression, and "applied history" as an enterprise receded until the 1970s, when it re-emerged in new contexts and forms. In 1974, Harvard University historian Ernest R. May published Lessons of the Past': The Use and Abuse Of History in American Foreign Policy'', which argues that more substantive engagement with the discipline of history would improve policymaking. May together with

Richard Neustadt Richard Elliott Neustadt (June 26, 1919 – October 31, 2003) was an American political scientist specializing in the United States presidency. He served as adviser to several presidents. His book ''Presidential Power'' has been described as "on ...

taught courses in which students were invited to apply historical insight to contemporary social issues; in 1986 May and Neustadt published ''Thinking in Time: The Uses of History for Decision-Makers''. In 1975, historians Joel Tarr and Peter Stearns launched an Applied History program at Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh. This Ph.D. program aimed to prepare students for jobs in a variety of public and private educational institutions. In the 1980s, the program changed its name from "Applied History" to "History and Policy".

Academic focus

Today there are a number of academic programs in applied history.

Shippensburg University Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania (Ship or SU) is a public university in the Shippensburg, Pennsylvania area. It is part of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education. Founded in 1871, it later became the first teachers' college ...

hosts a Center for Applied History, and there is an Applied History Project at

Harvard Kennedy School The John F. Kennedy School of Government, commonly referred to as Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), is the school of public policy of Harvard University, a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Harvard Kennedy School offers master's de ...

's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. In Flanders,

KU Leuven KU Leuven (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven) is a Catholic research university in the city of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium. Founded in 1425, it is the oldest university in Belgium and the oldest university in the Low Countries. In addition to its mai ...

and the State Archives of Belgium host project Corvus, which uses its research in applied history to develop, test and evaluate different types of historical consultancy. In November 2018, Dutch Historians Harm Kaal (

Radboud University Radboud University (abbreviated as RU, , formerly ) is a public research university located in Nijmegen, Netherlands. RU has seven faculties and more than 24,000 students. Established in 1923, Radboud University has consistently been included in ...

) and Jelle van Lottum (

Huygens Institute for the History of the Netherlands The Huygens Institute for the History of the Netherlands was formed on January 1, 2011, through a merger of the Institute of Dutch History (, ING) a research institute of the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research, and the Huygens Ins ...

) founded the ''Journal of Applied History'', published by academic publisher

Brill Publishers Brill Academic Publishers () is a Dutch international academic publisher of books, academic journals, and Bibliographic database, databases founded in 1683, making it one of the oldest publishing houses in the Netherlands. Founded in the South ...

Footnotes

Bibliography

* * Davison, Graeme (1991). "Paradigms of Public History", in John Rickard and Peter Spearritt, eds, ''Packaging the Past? Public Histories'' Melbourne: Melbourne University Press. * * Schroder, Alan M (1980). "Public History Makes the Scene In 1912." ''History News'', Vol. 35, No. 6: 13-14. * * {{cite journal , last1=Tarr , first1= Joel A. , title=Curriculum in Applied History: Toward the Future , journal= The Public Historian , date= Summer 1987 , volume=9 , issue=3 , pages= 111–125, doi= 10.2307/3377191 , jstor= 3377191

history History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...

Fields of history History education Museology