The Historian and the Historian-ish: Notes on the Future of the Past is under advance contract with the University of North Carolina Press.
Take a look at the list of top history podcasts or the history shelf at your local bookstore. Search "history" on Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube. Many Americans are getting their ideas about history here: through the work of people who often self-identify as historians, but who have little or no formal training in historical analysis. Credentials still matter in the professional world, but most history circulates far beyond it. What makes someone credible to a general audience is not their CV, but the way they present and narrate the past—which to most people looks indistinguishable from the work of professional historians. This blurring of expertise not only reshapes how history is consumed but also challenges the authority of professional historians within public culture.
In the contemporary, laypeople are engaging in forms of historical practice that allow them to act in the role of the historian—whether that means assembling and displaying an archive of materials or images online; contesting a historical institution's claim over interpretation or archival materials; or sharing information on social media in the authoritative voice of the lecturer or guide. I call this "the Historian-ish," and my cultural history examines how this paradigm came to be and what it has meant for the historical profession and for American society as a whole. The Historian-ish is an impulse: to research, to collect, to interpret, to contest. It is in evidence across disparate modes of non-professional historical activity.
Drawing on case studies across history institutions and popular culture, I trace its roots and development from the 1990s onward. By analyzing how historical expertise is performed, circulated, and contested, I argue that embracing the Historian-ish offers opportunities to expand public engagement, rethink authority in historical discourse, and foster a more participatory and inclusive practice of history in contemporary American society.