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{{short description|Genre of historiography}}
'''Popular history''' is a broad [[genre]] of [[historiography]] that takes a popular approach, aims at a wide readership, and usually emphasizes [[narrative]], [[Personality type|personality]] and vivid detail over scholarly analysis. The term is used in contradistinction to professional academic or scholarly history writing which is usually more specialized and technical and, thus, less accessible to the general reader.

== Conceptualizations ==
It is proposed that popular history is a "moral science" in the sense that recreates the past not only for its own sake but also to underscore how history could facilitate an ethically responsible present.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=Popular History and the Literary Marketplace, 1840-1920|last=Pfitzer|first=Gregory M.|date=2008|publisher=University of Massachusetts Press|isbn=978-1-55849-625-5|location=Amherst and Boston|pages=40, 41}}</ref> Some view it as history produced by authors who are better interlocutors capable of translating the language of scientificity to ordinary everyday language.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Popular History Now and Then: International Perspectives|last=Korte|first=Barbara|last2=Paletschek|first2=Sylvia|date=2014-03-31|publisher=transcript Verlag|isbn=978-3-8376-2007-8|location=Bielefeld|pages=17}}</ref>

Some scholars partly attributed the development of popular history to the increase of writers-turned-historians such as [[Benson John Lossing|Benson Lossing]], David Pae, and [[Mary Howitt|Mary Botham Howitt]], who wrote historical events "in good style" and, thus, more appealing to the public.<ref name=":0" />

== Popular historians ==
Some popular historians are without academic affiliation while others are academics, or former academics, who have (according to one writer) "become somehow abstracted from the academic arena, becoming cultural commentators."<ref>De Groot, Jerome (2009), [https://books.google.com/books?id=hexpdOj8t80C&pg=PA15&lpg=PA15&dq=%22popular+historian%22&source=bl&ots=yvNFz2kvUh&sig=io51iX8gENuqr0egzP2J9JpLwGM&hl=en&ei=ZBSxSpqCKYmf8Qbh7MHCDg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3#v=onepage&q=%22popular%20historian%22&f=false ''Consuming History: Historians and Heritage in Contemporary Popular Culture''], [[Routledge]], pg 15.</ref> Many worked as journalists, perhaps after taking an initial degree in history. Popular historians may become nationally renowned or best-selling authors and may or may not serve the interests of particular political viewpoints in their roles as "public historians". Many authors of "official histories" and "authorized biographies" would qualify as popular historians serving the interests of particular institutions or public figures.

Popular historians aim to appear on the "general lists" of general publishers, rather than the [[university press]]es that have dominated [[academic publishing]] in recent years. Increasingly, popular historians have taken to television where they are able, often accompanying a series of documentaries with a [[tie-in]] book.

==Examples==
=== Academics ===
Recent examples of American popular historians with academic affiliations include [[Stephen E. Ambrose]], [[Doris Kearns Goodwin]] and [[Pauline Maier]].

Recent examples of British popular historians who are also academics include [[Niall Ferguson]], [[Mary Beard (classicist)|Mary Beard]], [[Christopher Hibbert]], [[Tom Holland (author)|Tom Holland]], [[Simon Sebag Montefiore]] and [[Simon Schama]], and – from a previous generation – [[Eric Hobsbawm]], [[Paul Johnson (writer)|Paul Johnson]], [[E. P. Thompson]], [[A. J. P. Taylor]] (a pioneer of history on television) and [[Christopher Hill (historian)|Christopher Hill]]. Much of [[Hugh Trevor-Roper]]'s output was also directed at a popular audience. There is also [[Stella Tillyard]] and her work ''Aristocrats'', which combined scholarly research with the popular method of presentation.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Narratology in the Age of Cross-Disciplinary Narrative Research|last=Heinen|first=Sandra|last2=Sommer|first2=Roy|date=2009-09-04|publisher=Walter de Gruyter|isbn=978-3-11-022242-5|location=Berlin|pages=228}}</ref>

=== Non academics ===
American non-academics include [[Walter Lord]], [[Bruce Catton]], [[Dan Carlin]], [[Shelby Foote]], [[David McCullough]], [[Daniel J. Boorstin]], [[Max Cutler]], [[Ron Cutler (radio broadcaster)|Ron Cutler]], and [[Barbara W. Tuchman]].

[[John Julius Norwich]], [[Charles Allen (writer)|Charles Allen]], [[Rutger Bregman]] and [[Tariq Ali]] are popular British historians who have never been academics.

==See also==
* [[Public history]]
* [[Academic history]]
* [[History magazines]]
* [[Narrative history]]
* [[Official history]]
* [[People's history]]
* [[Popular science]]
* [[Whig history]]

==References==
{{no footnotes|date=June 2018}}
<references/>

==Further reading==
*[[Sean Wilentz|Wilentz, Sean]], "[https://newrepublic.com/article/90636/david-mccullough-john-adams-book-review America Made Easy: David McCullough, John Adams, and the Decline of Popular History], ''[[The New Republic]]'', 2 July 2001.
*[[Jill Lepore|Lepore, Jill]], "[https://www.jstor.org/stable/2674921 Historians Who Love Too Much: Reflections on Microhistory and Biography]", ''[[Journal of American History]]'', 88 (June 2001): 129–44.
*Pfitzer, Gregory M. (2008), ''Popular History and the Literary Marketplace, 1840-1920'', [[Amherst, Massachusetts|Amherst]]: [[University of Massachusetts Press]].
*{{Cite web|url=http://www.neh.gov/humanities/2009/septemberoctober/conversation/the-public-historian |title=The Public Historian - A Conversation with Jill Lepore|publisher= Humanities Magazine |date=September–October 2009}}

[[Category:Genres]]
[[Category:Historiography]]
[[Category:History education]]
[[Category:Literature]]
[[Category:Non-fiction genres]]
[[Category:Popular scholarship|History]]
[[Category:Works about history]]

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Popular history - Revision history

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