Abstract
This article presents a case study of a collaborative public history project between participants in two countries, the United Kingdom and Italy. Its subject matter is the bombing war in Europe, 1939-1945, which is remembered and commemorated in very different ways in these two countries: the sensitivities involved thus constitute not only a case of public history conducted at the national level but also one involving contested heritage. An account of the ways in which public history has developed in the UK and Italy is presented. This is followed by an explanation of how the bombing war has been remembered in each country. In the UK, veterans of RAF Bomber Command have long felt a sense of neglect, largely because the deliberate targeting of civilians has not fitted comfortably into the dominant victor narrative. In Italy, recollections of being bombed have remained profoundly dissonant within the received liberation discourse. The International Bomber Command Centre Digital Archive (or Archive) is then described as a case study that employs a public history approach, focusing on various aspects of its inclusive ethos, intended to preserve multiple perspectives. The Italian component of the project is highlighted, problematising the digitisation of contested heritage within the broader context of twentieth-century history. Reflections on the use of digital archiving practices and working in partnership are offered, as well as a brief account of user analytics of the Archive through its first eighteen months online.
Highlights
Little attention has as yet been paid to public history projects that function at the national level
This article addresses an example: the International Bomber Command Centre (IBCC) Digital Archive. It operates across national boundaries – in this case Italy and Britain – and attempts to embrace vastly different meanings associated with the bombing war in Europe, 1939-1945
It begins with an account of the development of public history in these two countries and of the ways in which the bombing war has been remembered
Summary
In Britain, the public history movement grew out of popular radicalism from the late 1960s which stimulated a focus on gathering people’s history, or history from below, largely through oral testimony. The bombing war has profoundly affected collective memory.[18] Unlike other European countries, Italy was bombed as foe until the armistice in September 1943, as friend.In the wake of the armistice, Allied bombing operations inflicted death and destruction on an unprecedented scale, while at the same time carrying the promise of liberation from German occupying forces and the Italian Social Republic puppet state.[19] The conflict lasted for almost two more years as the Allies slowly advanced along the peninsula, supported by resistance forces beyond the lines.[20] This situation created a complex narrative, as De Bernardi explains: Another Italy was forged in the resistance alongside the Allies, an Italy which in a paradox that historical research cannot help revealing, welcomed the winners enthusiastically and saw those who bombed its own cities, killing thousands of its own people, as ‘liberators’.21. Sharon Leon’s is the most sensitive about working crossculturally, suggesting that the planning of a public history project ought to be ‘equal measures technical and qualitative’ and that digital public historians should honour the ‘complexity and contingency of history’.35
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