Historians Imagine

Celebrating Creativity in the Craft

Historians Imagineis a monthly webinar devoted to this dimension of the craft. Patty Limerick and Matthew Jacobson talk with path-breaking historians about the inventiveness and vision of their work, and about the more mysterious aspects of their practices—their imaginative spark and the virtues that liebeyond rigorand out of reach of your typical “how to” manual. These conversations will appeal to professional historians, to be sure, and might offer liberation from the academy’s constraints and the disciplining demands of convention. But they will equally engage anyone who is interested in how new stories are made from old materials, and how great storytellers and historical sleuths think to do what they do.

Writing history is like jazz improvisation. Good history is made of intuitive flourishes and counterintuitive riffs; it is a call and response, the soloist plays both with and against the ensemble of fellow historians; it hews to established principles, but reaches ever toward the original and unfamiliar. If the presentation of history is an inherently creative venture, then why is it so often mischaracterized as a tedious, dry pursuit? And why in their teaching do history professors themselves typically stress rigor over creativity, aptitude over artistry? The academy’s many rules do engender integrity. Historiansshouldbe judicious in the questions they ask of the past; theyshouldsearch out reliable sources and mine them with skepticism and care; theyshouldfashion their blueprints according to the best evidence; theyshouldcredit their predecessors, never claiming a reinvented wheel as their own. But there is still plenty of running room for that spectacular human capacity called “creativity.” And indeed, the most highly regarded and compelling practitioners of the craft are those who are able to weave a vivid tapestry with words, to execute the unexpected interpretive bank shot, to render alchemic gold from the unpromising dross recovered from a meager archive. Creativity isn’t an add-on; our best work depends on it.

Moderators

Patty Limerick

Patty Limerick

Faculty Director and Chair of the Board, Center of the American West, University of Colorado Boulder

Matthew Jacobson

Matthew Jacobson

William Robertson Coe Professor of American Studies and History, Yale University

To see all of the videos from the Historian Imagine events,
visit our page.

Featured Historians

[video:https://youtu.be/Viy61Wirjoo]

Ari Kelman
UC Davis

Historian of the Civil War and Reconstruction, the politics of memory, and Native American history. Author ofBattle Lines: A Graphic History of the Civil WarandA Misplaced Massacre: Struggling Over the Memory of Sand Creek.

[video:https://youtu.be/TEKYGW3B7Kk]

B. Erin Cole
Minnesota Historical Society

Historian, museum professional and cartoonist. Currently turning some of her research on zoning, race and sexuality into a longform comic for public audiences. Author of the comics,I Am A HistorianI Make ExhibitsandAm I Still a Historian?

[video:https://youtu.be/XepTjByZxkw]

Jenny Price
Washington University

Public writer, artist, historian, and author ofStop Saving the Planet!: An Environmentalist Manifesto.Co-creator of theOur Malibu Beachesmobile-phone app.

[video:https://youtu.be/8cGYG5Szp1U]

Phil Deloria
Harvard

Social, cultural and political historian of the relations among American Indian peoples and the United States. Author ofPlaying Indian, andIndians in Unexpected Places.

[video:https://youtu.be/3tdR9FtZ4is]

Natalia Molina
University of Southern California

Historian who examines the interconnectedness of racial and ethnic communities through her concept of “racial scripts.” Author ofHow Race Is Made in America: Immigration, Citizenship, and the Historical Power of Racial ScriptsandFit to Be Citizens?: Public Health and Race in Los Angeles, 1879-1940.