“Don’t frack our history!” Using the past for environmental activism in northeastern Pennsylvania | History@Work

Posted on September 28, 2012 by Kate Wilson

“Don’t frack our history!” Using the past for environmental activism in northeastern Pennsylvania | History@Work.

About Kate Wilson

I am an associate professor of history at Georgia State University, where I teach public history, immigration/ethnic history, oral history, and material culture. My current research focuses on the impact of ethnic communities on the urban cultural landscape, and the representation of immigration in public history contexts. My book, Ethnic Renewal in Philadelphia's Chinatown: Space, Place and Struggle, was published by Temple University Press in 2015.
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1 Response to “Don’t frack our history!” Using the past for environmental activism in northeastern Pennsylvania | History@Work

  1. jwilliams277 says:
    October 1, 2012 at 1:24 am

    When I first started reading this article, I was a little depressed because I thought it was a situation of a public historian vehemently supporting the idea that public history should always be used to “fight the power.” I got excited when I realized the real intent of the article was to argue that the public historian’s place is as a mediator between opposing sides. The author recognizes that if public historians join the fight on one side or the other, they aren’t doing anything except furthering the fight. I like the idea that public historians can be, as he says, “citizen historians forging those dialogues.”

    But here is the question I am left with…how? I see that both sides of the argument turn to history in one way or another, but does that really create an avenue through which public historians can have some say in what’s going on? Is he saying public historians should be community leaders, thus giving them some say? I would like to hear some other people’s opinions about how public historians are supposed to gain a foothold to work for positive outcomes in these types of conflicts.

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