Week Four: Denise Meringolo, Radical Roots : Public History and a Tradition of Social Justice Activism

"Radical" Public History: Introductions

        Radical Roots: Public History and a Tradition of Social Justice Activism is a collection of articles curated by Denise Meringolo in the pursuit to understand a new generation of Public History. More so, Meringolo wishes to understand the intersectional nature that exists with social justice and historical accounting; Meringolo argues that Public History is uniquely political, defining "radical public history" as a future focused, social justice based inclusion of records (Meringolo, 1-3). The radical nature of public history, as Meringolo argues, is critical to it's survival and is the exact reason the field has been able to adapt and evolve over the 19th, 20th, and 21st century (Meringolo, 17). 

        I question Meringolo's definition of "radical" public history, where she understands it as public history that is "future focused, committed to the advancement of social justice, and engaged in the creation of a more material record" (Meringolo, 2). In my opinion, Meringolo's phrasing throughout her introduction argues the inescapable nature of political activism within the field of public history, understanding that only by "radical" standards we can create a full account that involves firsthand testimony, challenging older beliefs and forming new, wholistic opinions on identity and memory. I would disagree. I believe to promote a truly wholistic history, political attitudes and opinions promote unconscious bias and eventually lead historians to "take sides." Meringolo is advocating for the importance of social justice activism in the nature of public history, yes, but to say that the political nature of public history is vital to a wholistic approach is something I do not find to be true.

Unintentional Public Historians: Collective Memory and Identity Production in the American Indian and LGBTQ Liberation

Lara Kelland's work offers a understanding of the intersectional nature between communal memory and social justice activism, understanding the importance of public history as a political activator and motivator for self-identifying communities (Kelland, 503-505). Kelland makes her argument by understanding the cultural implications that public history has in the hands of marginalized communities: Public History created new political identities to serve political movements, created the groundwork for community based history, and created a notion to revised narratives filled with biased or stigmatizations of communal minorities (Kelland, 503). Kelland, throughout her chapter, highlights multiple political movements of the 20th century including the red power movement led my Navajos and other Native American tribes to  promote an accurate history of US-Native conflict by establishing colleges and universities (Kelland, 505-507). Alongside Native American movements, she highlights the creation and establishment of LGBTQ+ narratives through the promotion and endurance of the communal memory (Kelland, 508, 517-518). Most importantly, however, was the shared experience between both parties in the creation of an archive completely based on personal experiences and hidden accounts, using sources that accurately depicted and gave light to lived-in experiences of both Native Americans and members of the LGBTQ+ community. Kelland cites Joan Nestle as the founder of what she called "radical archiving," or the communal ownership and responsibility to protect their self curated archives (Kelland, 510).  The movement and push to create a communal archive that contained the shared experiences of the lesbian community created, for the first time ever, the obligation to share the work, financial responsibility, and the culture resources that were created out of it (Kelland, 511). This push from both communities gave them a political stance on the basis of their own history and accountability, ultimately carving their own path into mainstream discussion and political discourse.