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Ghettoes to Gentrification: How Hollywood Shaped America’s Urban Imagination
By Sam Collings-Wells (@Sam_cw_) ‘And they hide their faces / And they hide their eyes / Cause the city is dyin’/ And they don’t know why’. These lyrics from Randy Newman’s 1977 ‘Baltimore’—later made famous by Nina Simone’s justly celebrated cover—perfectly captured the spirit urban life during the mid-1970s. Historians would later pinpoint the variety…
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How to abuse and misuse history: a guide from twentieth-century politics
By Spike Lister The utilisation of history in political discourse has itself a long history. For as long as there has been a public space and a shared experience, communities have looked to the past as a lens through which to understand their issues. History offers us a guiding light by which to move forwards…
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Review: The Museum of the American Revolution
By Evelyn Strope (@emstrope) Location: 3rd & Chestnut Streets, Philadelphia, PA, USA, Independence National Historical Park Ticket Prices: $18 Student, $21 Adult Opening Hours: Mon–Sun, 10am–5pm www.amrevmuseum.org; @AmRevMuseum While undertaking archival research in Philadelphia this summer, I finally had the chance to visit the Museum of the American Revolution (MAR), situated at the heart of…
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‘Come From Away’: Can historical methodology and theatre co-exist?
By Charlotte Coyne (@charlottecoyne_) Recently, there has been a rise in the number of musical theatre productions which choose to depict historical events. Many even delve into discussing historiography and the process of creating history as a major theme of the show. Most lauded among these is, of course, Hamilton: An American Musical, to which…
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11. A Knotted Cord
By Nico Bell-Romero (@NicoBellRomero) Receiving a knotted cord – a strand made from yucca leaves – might seem like a strange gift for Christmas, but in August 1680, during their revolt against the Spanish, the Pueblo peoples of present-day Mexico placed great importance on them.
doinghistoryinpublic.org 