A Wall Street Journal poll highlights a crucial shift in how Americans understand their history. It challenges the mainstream history establishment to rethink its assumptions and underscores the vital role of public history in fostering informed and critical engagement with the past.

Public history has evolved into a spectrum, a landscape with different approaches, each with its own strengths, weaknesses, and potential impact.

Nuance has become a tool to soften harsh truths and elevate exceptions over systemic realities.

At its core, public history is about connecting the past to the world we live in right now.

Bringing the (Now) Current State of Public History into Focus.