Javna i primijenjena povijest

Abstract

The article presents key elements of public history. Firstly, it indicates the changes in contemporary historiography that enabled the emergence of public history, as well as its affirmation as a new historical sub-discipline and consequently its inclusion in university programmes. Secondly, it describes institutional development of public history from the 1970s onwards, and contemplates the still open question of its definition. In addition, the article presents the main highlights of applied history. Although applied history is often mentioned as an integral part of public history, it is worth talking about it separately, in order to highlight the practical dimension of history. This refers to history in practice and the possibilities of historians' work outside the academia and education. The article also presents controversies and criticisms provoked by public history and applied history and offers answers to them. The author argues that public and applied history can be a framework that enables historians to reconcile the professional needs and the audience's interests. He points out that it is important to take into account the relationship between academic historiography and the public. Lastly, the author discusses future perspectives of public and applied history, with an emphasis on local academic historiography. Considering the students' interest as well as that of a significant part of local historians, the author encourages discussion about a possible graduate studies in public history. Besides being an important challenge for academic historiography, the author concludes that public and applied history can also offer a great deal of practical skills to professional historians.