Zen and the Art of Local History

by Carol Kammen author of On Doing Local (Editor), Bob Beatty interim president and CEO, American Association for State and Local History (Editor)

Overview

Zen and the Art of Local History is an engaging, interactive conversation that conveys the exciting nature of local history.

Divided into six major themes the book covers the scope and breadth of local history:
• Being a Local Historian
• Topics and Sources
• Staying Relevant
• Getting it Right
• Writing History
• History Organizations

Each chapter features one of Carol Kammen’s memorable editorials from History News.

Her editorial is a “call.” Each is followed by a response from one of more than five dozen prominent players in state and local history. These Respondents include local and public historians, archivists, volunteers, and history professionals across the kaleidoscopic spectrum of local history. Among this group are Katherine Kane, Robert “Bob” Richmond, Charlie Bryan, and Cinnamon Catlin-Legutko.

The result is a series of dialogues on important topics in the field of local history. This interactivity of these conversations makes Zen and the Art of Local History a unique offering in the public history field.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781442226913
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	08/14/2014
Series:	American Association for State and Local History
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	390
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Carol Kammen has been writing about doing local history for many years. The first edition of this book came out in 1985; this edition is greatly pruned and expanded. She has edited The Encyclopedia of Local History (two editions) for Alta Mira Press and AASLH and has written editorials for History News since 1995. In addition she has written a history of her county, of the City in which she lives, and Cornell: Glorious to View (2003) and Part & Apart: The African American Experience at Cornell, 1865-1945 (2008) and edited First Person Cornell: Student’s Letters, Diaries, Email and Blogs (2006). She has also written two-dozen dramatic presentations using local history, including Between the Lines, Peaches and Bird, The Language of War and others and writes a history column for her local newspaper. She lives in Ithaca, New York, taught at Cornell University, and serves as the Tompkins County Historian.


Bob Beatty is Vice President for Programs for the American Association for State & Local History where he leads AASLH’s professional development program including workshops, an annual meeting, affinity groups and other initiatives, and publications as editor of History News and a member of the AASLH Editorial Advisory Board. From 1999-2007 he directed the Education Department at the Orange County (FL) Regional History Center where he led or oversaw dozens of community outreach programs ranging from school partnerships, youth/family activities, adult programming, and community partnerships.

Table of Contents

Foreword by Lorraine McConaghy
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Chapter 1: About Being a Local Historian
Call: Not for a Test, but History for Life, Response: Spencer Downing
Call: Perambulation, Response: Aaron Sachs
Call: Inappropriate Questions, Response: James L. Baggett
Call: What We Tell the Youngsters, Response: Kate Betz
Call: We Are Not Journalists, Response: Jeffrey J. Kollath
Call: Local Knowledge, Response: Mary Alexander
Call: Abby Hemenway, Response: Rebecca Conard
Call: Water Buffalos, Wildebeests, and Gazelles, Response: Robert B. Townsend
Call: Educating Our “Other” Audiences, Response: Karen Graham Wade
Call: The Local History Apprentice, Response: Kate Tiller
Call: Millenialism, Response: Robert Richmond
Call: Taking the Prize, Response: Donald P. Zuris
Call: History’s Long Rangers, Response: Michael Potaski
Call: Retiring Sorts, Response: Richard L. Williams
Chapter 2: The Clay for Our Wheels and the Pots We Make
Call: Getting Involved, Response: Allyn Lord
Call: Out of the Closet, Response: Paul Landry
Call: The Clipping Point, Response: Scott Muir Stroh III
Call: An Ode to Scrapbooks, Response: Kelly Nolin
Call: The Envelope Please, Response: K. Allison Wickens
Call; Replevin, Response: Galen R. Wilson
Call: Local History and the Underground Railroad, Response: Dina Bailey and Richard C. Cooper
Call: The Hall’s in Your Court(house), Response: James D. Folts
Call: Down for the Count, Response: Lila Teresa Church
Call: Small Changes, Response: Darlene Roth
Call: Rethinking Local History, Response: Bruce Teeple
Call: Around and About, Response: William L. Lang
Call: Recording the Home Front, Response: Courtney L. Tollison
Call: To Blog or Not to Blog, Response: Kate Theimer
Chapter 3: Mingled Yarn
Call: Community Education, Response: Lynne Ireland
Call: Seeking Diversity, Response: Patricia Williams Lessane
Call: History Tents, Response: Linda W. Chapin
Call: Travel at Home, Response: Janet Vaughan
Call: Travel at Home (Redux), Response: Amy H. Wilson
Call: In Memoriam: Quite a Decade (Prelude and Postscript), Response; Jessica Dorman
Call: Acts of Nature and Other Disturbing Events, Response: Beverly C. Tyler
Call: When All is Lost, Response: Alice Parman
Call: The Poor are Always Among Us, Response: Robert Archibald
Call: What’s in a Name, Response: Mary E. Montgomery
Chapter 4: Truth and Consequences
Call: When Not Being Wrong is Not Good Enough, Response: Constantine Dillon
Call: Ducking, Bobbing, and Looking Away, Response: Charles F. Bryan, Jr.
Call: Unintended Consequences, Response: Joe Meehan
Call: Making it Up, Response: Tim Grove
Call: Truth and Fiction, Response: Mark T. Mannette
Call: Just All the Facts, Ma’am, Just Not All the Facts, Response: Annette Atkins
Chapter 5: Words in Stone
Call: History for Our Times, Response: David A. Janssen
Call: In Context, Response: Paige Lilly
Call: Local History’s Audience, Response: J. Kent Calder and Thomas A. Mason
Call: Community History, Response: Stephen L. Cox
Call: The Things We Ignore, Response: Philip V. Scarpino
Call: To Note or Not to Note, Response: Chris Brewer
Call: Defining the Field, Response: Matthew Gibson
Chapter 6: Work and Play in History’s Sandbox
Call: A Fourteen-Step Program for Local History, Response: Cinnamon Catlin-Legutko
Call: Clanking of Canes: A Survey of North American State and Local History, Response: Burt Logan
Call: The Future of Historical Societies, Response: James M. Vaughan
Call: An Abundance of History, Response: Lisa Anderson
Call: Cultural Tourism, Response: Carolyn Brackett
Call: In the Company of Our Peers, Response: Janice B. Klein
Call: The Importance of a Good Chair, Response: Tobi Voigt
Call: Out of the Box and Into the Fray, Response: Katherine D. Kane
Call: Tripping over History, Response: Lawrence J. Yerdon
Call: Radio Waves, Response: Stan Deaton
Call: Random Acts, Response: Cynthia Cardona Melendez
Call: Into the Archive, Response: Kathleen D. Roe
Call: On Boards, Response: Kent Whitworth
Call: Being On Board, Response: Kathleen M. O’Leary
Title/Author index
Subject index
About the Authors

Editorial Reviews

The only thing better than a Carol Kammen 'On Doing Local History' essay is sixty-eight Carol Kammen essays. The only thing better than sixty-eight of Carol's insightful, spot-on, wonderfully crafted essays is marrying each with a talented colleague laboring in our rich field somewhere in this great country who provides equally compelling commentary and reflection. This volume is a superb idea taken to the max - at once readable, cerebral, practical, philosophical, and fun. Buy it. Read it. Pass it on.

AASLH History News

Carol Kammen has been providing thoughtful commentary to History News readers for more than two decades. This volume is a retrospective of her columns followed by responses from her colleagues (and yours). Together, Carol and American Association for State and Local History’s own Bob Beatty have put together a book that will challenge your thinking and approaches to our work.

Terry Davis

Carol Kammen...has a gift for putting into crafted simple prose the thoughts that many of us have floating around rather vaguely in our minds. Zen and the Art of Local History is a constantly stimulating read. I have rarely seen a better book about local history, or been more impressed by the combination of wisdom, humanity and practicality which it offers.

The Local Historian

The only thing better than a Carol Kammen “On Doing Local History” essay is sixty-eight Carol Kammen essays. The only thing better than sixty-eight of Carol’s insightful, spot-on, wonderfully crafted essays is marrying each with a talented colleague laboring in our rich field somewhere in this great country who provides equally compelling commentary and reflection. This volume is a superb idea taken to the max—at once readable, cerebral, practical, philosophical, and fun. Buy it. Read it. Pass it on.

D. Stephen Elliott

Those in search of the higher purpose of history—be it local, regional, national, or global—would do well to acquaint themselves with Zen and the Art of Local History. It is a welcome reminder of what attracted many of us to the field of history and then kept us here. It speaks from the soul. Kammen and Beatty have produced a work that accurately defines the place of local history within the big tent of public history. It is a good introduction to local history and a road map of some of its contentious as well as more Zen-like paths.

Journal of American History

Carol Kammen and Bob Beatty provide timeless thought-fuel about the presence of local history in our daily lives. You’ll be engaged, inspired, and armed with a broader perspective that invites you to dig into the important task of making history accessible to others.

Colleen Dilenschneider