Editor’s Introduction

This themed issue, “Labor as Public History,” highlights recent practice in two closely related fields. Historian Richard Anderson opens our forum with a reflection on changes in the field since the founding of the National Council on Public History in 1980. From early on, he writes (quoting Cathy Stanton), public historians grappled with their role as “‘historians in the middle,’ operating between various constituencies and disciplinary fields.” The challenge of “shared authority”—among sponsors, producers, and audiences of public history sites and installations—continues to define both its special burden and its promise. Three noteworthy examples follow. “The materiality of archaeological evidence” together with the “communal effort required for its execution,” suggests Michael Roller, offers a particularly rich venue for public engagement. Both the famous 1914 Ludlow Massacre, as treated by the National Park Service, and the more obscure 1897 Lattimer Massacre, part of an independent Pennsylvania anthracite community project, offer multiple...