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In this innovative and original collection, people are seen as active agents in the development of new ways of understanding the past and creating histories for the present. Chapters explore forms of public history in which people´s experience and understanding of their personal, national and local pasts are part of their current lives.

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Acknowledgements Notes on Contributors Introduction: People and their Pasts and Public History; P.Ashton and H.Kean PART I: THE MAKING OF HISTORY Connecting with History: Australians and their Pasts; P.Ashton and P.Hamilton Usable Pasts: Comparing Approaches to Popular and Public History; B.E.Jensen The Past as a Public Good: the US National Park Service and ´cultural repair´ in Post-industrial Places; C.Stanton Shades of Grey: Public History and Government in New Zealand; B.Dalley PART II: PRESENTING THE PAST IN PLACE AND SPACE ´Garden of Gratitude´: the National Memorial Arboretum and Strategic Remembering; P.Gough Re-enacting the Wars of the Roses: History and Identity; M.O´Brien Backhouse Creating New Pasts in Museums: Planning the Museum of London´s Modern London Galleries ; D.McIntyre Monument mania? Public Space and the Black and Asian Presence in London; J.Siblon Museum Theatre: Children´s Reading of ´first person interpretation´ in Museums; V.Tzibazi PART III: MATERIAL CULTURE, MEMORY AND PUBLIC HISTORIES A Nation´s Moment and a Teacher´s Mark Book: Interconnecting Personal and Public Histories; H.Kean and B.Kirsch Absent Fathers, Present Histories; M.Bashforth ´Memoryscape´ : Integrating Oral History, Memory and Landscape on the River Thames; T.Butler Expanding the Archive: The Role of Family History in Exploring Connections within a Settler´s World; M.Stewart Harry Jacobs: the Studio Photographer and the Visual Archive; J.Newman Select bibliography Index

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´This important and imaginative book explores the myriad ways in which the past is represented and remembered, remade and contested. Starting from the premise that ´we are all historians´, People and their Pasts uses rich case studies from around the world to examine the aims, approaches and impacts of public history and the pivotal role of the public historian.´ - Alistair Thomson, Monash University, Australia

´As historians we need to postion orselves within this wider framework, and engage with different forms of history. The collection provides a thought-provoking guide to some of the debates we might find there.´ The English Historical Review

´. . . thought provoking and insightful . . .´ The Public History Review

´the chapters are cohesive and cumulative, responding deftly and elegantly to the volume´s overall themes and framework... a valuable resource for both students and the informed scholar´ - International Journal of Heritage Studies

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