Applied History Toolkit

We offer individual and group workshops that train a new generation to become experts in the field of Applied History. Our Applied History Toolkit profiles聽the following skills that you will have fun acquiring:

Identify Your Audiences

Figure out the sectors of society who need to be guided by your historical research; they may not know it yet, but they鈥檙e about to find out.

Reach鈥攁nd Hold鈥擸our Audiences

Reconfigure, realign, and 鈥渞epurpose鈥 your academic skills to ensure that you will never lose your audience, and they will never want to lose you.

Connect from the Very Start

Cultivate customs for beginning with the essential question (鈥淗ow can I help?鈥), and then move fast to enlist your audience in helping you to help them.

Choose Your Stance

Reflect鈥攚ith intensity鈥攐n whether you want to be an activist or a moderator, or some hybrid thereof. Applied Historians are free to champion a cause, but they should sketch out the cost/benefit implications of every posture available to them.

Embrace the 鈥淎ll Hands on Deck鈥 Approach

Never lose sight of the fact that historians affiliated with universities, colleges, museums, historical societies, governmental agencies, non-profits, etc., etc., are all each other鈥檚 professional kinfolk, and stay constantly on the alert for opportunities to work in partnership.

Prepare to Tolerate鈥攁nd Even Prevail Over鈥擝ad Temper and Outrage

Practice techniques of self-management to stay calm when historical subjects set off strong feelings. Recognize that holding steady and coping with these episodes of agitation will make you a stronger historian (and provide you with memorable stories to tell when disarming the next assemblage of the crabby).

Anticipate鈥攁nd Counteract鈥擯erformances and Declarations of Apathy and Indifference

Recognize that a sector of the population will always need to tell you that history was their least favorite subject in high school, and recognize that it is still your mission to invite those folks to value historical perspectives and awaken to their relevance. Patience, persistence, and bursts of creativity will set them鈥攁nd you鈥攆ree of the legacy of boredom.