Abstract
Public History refers to historical representation and transmission made by the public when
they reflect upon their own historical consciousness and historical understanding. With the increasing growth of public desire for historical knowledge, professional historians now
have two alternatives: one is to consciously reflect and analyze the development of their
own historical knowing and historical consciousness, taking advantage of their merits and
avoiding their weakness so as to become the participant or guide of public history; the
other is to retain their role of “insiders” and keep on writing histories only for professional
historians, waiting for the self-improvement of the public or the “outsiders” in terms of
historical writing in the context of the new modes of information transmission and then letting these amateurs replace the professional historians. It is high time that we
constructed public history discipline with the organizational system of academic discipline
and with professional insight. With the spread of We-media, the double-edged functions of history may change within short period of time. Therefore, we need to think strategically of
public participance in the production and transmission of historical knowledge, trying to
offer a controllable, open and healthy environment for it .
they reflect upon their own historical consciousness and historical understanding. With the increasing growth of public desire for historical knowledge, professional historians now
have two alternatives: one is to consciously reflect and analyze the development of their
own historical knowing and historical consciousness, taking advantage of their merits and
avoiding their weakness so as to become the participant or guide of public history; the
other is to retain their role of “insiders” and keep on writing histories only for professional
historians, waiting for the self-improvement of the public or the “outsiders” in terms of
historical writing in the context of the new modes of information transmission and then letting these amateurs replace the professional historians. It is high time that we
constructed public history discipline with the organizational system of academic discipline
and with professional insight. With the spread of We-media, the double-edged functions of history may change within short period of time. Therefore, we need to think strategically of
public participance in the production and transmission of historical knowledge, trying to
offer a controllable, open and healthy environment for it .