history pragmatic historian

Making History Visible in Surveys

Upon the recommendation of Mike, a history museum colleague of mine, I read George Lakoff’s “Don’t Think of an Elephant! Know Your Values and Frame the Debate.” Great book. I highly recommend it. Now I’m seeing subtle (and not so subtle) frames everywhere. In order to change existing frames, you’ve got to be able to notice them wherever they occur. I’ve been attempting to make history more visible because of its importance to society, our…

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history museums pragmatic historian

How to Market History’s Importance as Infrastructure

Last week’s blog post, “Two Broken Hips Away from Closing,” was inspired by a tweet from historian Larry Cebula. This week’s post is inspired by a tweet from historian David Grabitske (as seen above) in response to that post. Last year around about this time, I came to the realization that history is part of a community’s infrastructure and I wrote about it here. Since then, any time I have the opportunity, I tell people…

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