R&L Logo R&L Logo
  • GENERAL
    • Browse by Subjects
    • New Releases
    • Coming Soon
    • Chases's Calendar
  • ACADEMIC
    • Textbooks
    • Browse by Course
    • Instructor's Copies
    • Monographs & Research
    • Reference
  • PROFESSIONAL
    • Education
    • Intelligence & Security
    • Library Services
    • Business & Leadership
    • Museum Studies
    • Music
    • Pastoral Resources
    • Psychotherapy
  • FREUD SET
Cover Image
Hardback
Paperback
eBook
share of facebook share on twitter
Add to GoodReads

Zen and the Art of Local History

Edited by Carol Kammen and Bob Beatty

Zen and the Art of Local History is an engaging, interactive conversation that conveys the exciting nature of local history.

Divided into six major themes the book covers the scope and breadth of local history:
• Being a Local Historian
• Topics and Sources
• Staying Relevant
• Getting it Right
• Writing History
• History Organizations

Each chapter features one of Carol Kammen’s memorable editorials from History News.

Her editorial is a “call.” Each is followed by a response from one of more than five dozen prominent players in state and local history. These Respondents include local and public historians, archivists, volunteers, and history professionals across the kaleidoscopic spectrum of local history. Among this group are Katherine Kane, Robert “Bob” Richmond, Charlie Bryan, and Cinnamon Catlin-Legutko.

The result is a series of dialogues on important topics in the field of local history. This interactivity of these conversations makes
Zen and the Art of Local History a unique offering in the public history field.
  • Details
  • Details
  • Author
  • Author
  • TOC
  • TOC
  • Reviews
  • Reviews
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers / AASLH
Pages: 354 • Trim: 6 x 9
978-1-4422-2689-0 • Hardback • August 2014 • $126.00 • (£97.00)
978-1-4422-2690-6 • Paperback • August 2014 • $67.00 • (£52.00)
978-1-4422-2691-3 • eBook • August 2014 • $63.50 • (£49.00)
Series: American Association for State and Local History
Subjects: History / United States / State & Local / General, History / Public History, Art / Museum and Historic Sites / Historic Sites and Houses
Carol Kammen has been writing about doing local history for many years. The first edition of this book came out in 1985; this edition is greatly pruned and expanded. She has edited The Encyclopedia of Local History (two editions) for Alta Mira Press and AASLH and has written editorials for History News since 1995. In addition she has written a history of her county, of the City in which she lives, and Cornell: Glorious to View (2003) and Part & Apart: The African American Experience at Cornell, 1865-1945 (2008) and edited First Person Cornell: Student’s Letters, Diaries, Email and Blogs (2006). She has also written two-dozen dramatic presentations using local history, including Between the Lines, Peaches and Bird, The Language of War and others and writes a history column for her local newspaper. She lives in Ithaca, New York, taught at Cornell University, and serves as the Tompkins County Historian.


Bob Beatty is Vice President for Programs for the American Association for State & Local History where he leads AASLH’s professional development program including workshops, an annual meeting, affinity groups and other initiatives, and publications as editor of History News and a member of the AASLH Editorial Advisory Board. From 1999-2007 he directed the Education Department at the Orange County (FL) Regional History Center where he led or oversaw dozens of community outreach programs ranging from school partnerships, youth/family activities, adult programming, and community partnerships.
Foreword by Lorraine McConaghy
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Chapter 1: About Being a Local Historian
Call: Not for a Test, but History for Life, Response: Spencer Downing
Call: Perambulation, Response: Aaron Sachs
Call: Inappropriate Questions, Response: James L. Baggett
Call: What We Tell the Youngsters, Response: Kate Betz
Call: We Are Not Journalists, Response: Jeffrey J. Kollath
Call: Local Knowledge, Response: Mary Alexander
Call: Abby Hemenway, Response: Rebecca Conard
Call: Water Buffalos, Wildebeests, and Gazelles, Response: Robert B. Townsend
Call: Educating Our “Other” Audiences, Response: Karen Graham Wade
Call: The Local History Apprentice, Response: Kate Tiller
Call: Millenialism, Response: Robert Richmond
Call: Taking the Prize, Response: Donald P. Zuris
Call: History’s Long Rangers, Response: Michael Potaski
Call: Retiring Sorts, Response: Richard L. Williams
Chapter 2: The Clay for Our Wheels and the Pots We Make
Call: Getting Involved, Response: Allyn Lord
Call: Out of the Closet, Response: Paul Landry
Call: The Clipping Point, Response: Scott Muir Stroh III
Call: An Ode to Scrapbooks, Response: Kelly Nolin
Call: The Envelope Please, Response: K. Allison Wickens
Call; Replevin, Response: Galen R. Wilson
Call: Local History and the Underground Railroad, Response: Dina Bailey and Richard C. Cooper
Call: The Hall’s in Your Court(house), Response: James D. Folts
Call: Down for the Count, Response: Lila Teresa Church
Call: Small Changes, Response: Darlene Roth
Call: Rethinking Local History, Response: Bruce Teeple
Call: Around and About, Response: William L. Lang
Call: Recording the Home Front, Response: Courtney L. Tollison
Call: To Blog or Not to Blog, Response: Kate Theimer
Chapter 3: Mingled Yarn
Call: Community Education, Response: Lynne Ireland
Call: Seeking Diversity, Response: Patricia Williams Lessane
Call: History Tents, Response: Linda W. Chapin
Call: Travel at Home, Response: Janet Vaughan
Call: Travel at Home (Redux), Response: Amy H. Wilson
Call: In Memoriam: Quite a Decade (Prelude and Postscript), Response; Jessica Dorman
Call: Acts of Nature and Other Disturbing Events, Response: Beverly C. Tyler
Call: When All is Lost, Response: Alice Parman
Call: The Poor are Always Among Us, Response: Robert Archibald
Call: What’s in a Name, Response: Mary E. Montgomery
Chapter 4: Truth and Consequences
Call: When Not Being Wrong is Not Good Enough, Response: Constantine Dillon
Call: Ducking, Bobbing, and Looking Away, Response: Charles F. Bryan, Jr.
Call: Unintended Consequences, Response: Joe Meehan
Call: Making it Up, Response: Tim Grove
Call: Truth and Fiction, Response: Mark T. Mannette
Call: Just All the Facts, Ma’am, Just Not All the Facts, Response: Annette Atkins
Chapter 5: Words in Stone
Call: History for Our Times, Response: David A. Janssen
Call: In Context, Response: Paige Lilly
Call: Local History’s Audience, Response: J. Kent Calder and Thomas A. Mason
Call: Community History, Response: Stephen L. Cox
Call: The Things We Ignore, Response: Philip V. Scarpino
Call: To Note or Not to Note, Response: Chris Brewer
Call: Defining the Field, Response: Matthew Gibson
Chapter 6: Work and Play in History’s Sandbox
Call: A Fourteen-Step Program for Local History, Response: Cinnamon Catlin-Legutko
Call: Clanking of Canes: A Survey of North American State and Local History, Response: Burt Logan
Call: The Future of Historical Societies, Response: James M. Vaughan
Call: An Abundance of History, Response: Lisa Anderson
Call: Cultural Tourism, Response: Carolyn Brackett
Call: In the Company of Our Peers, Response: Janice B. Klein
Call: The Importance of a Good Chair, Response: Tobi Voigt
Call: Out of the Box and Into the Fray, Response: Katherine D. Kane
Call: Tripping over History, Response: Lawrence J. Yerdon
Call: Radio Waves, Response: Stan Deaton
Call: Random Acts, Response: Cynthia Cardona Melendez
Call: Into the Archive, Response: Kathleen D. Roe
Call: On Boards, Response: Kent Whitworth
Call: Being On Board, Response: Kathleen M. O’Leary
Title/Author index
Subject index
About the Authors


The only thing better than a Carol Kammen 'On Doing Local History' essay is sixty-eight Carol Kammen essays. The only thing better than sixty-eight of Carol's insightful, spot-on, wonderfully crafted essays is marrying each with a talented colleague laboring in our rich field somewhere in this great country who provides equally compelling commentary and reflection. This volume is a superb idea taken to the max - at once readable, cerebral, practical, philosophical, and fun. Buy it. Read it. Pass it on.
— AASLH History News


Carol Kammen...has a gift for putting into crafted simple prose the thoughts that many of us have floating around rather vaguely in our minds. Zen and the Art of Local History is a constantly stimulating read. I have rarely seen a better book about local history, or been more impressed by the combination of wisdom, humanity and practicality which it offers.

— The Local Historian


Those in search of the higher purpose of history—be it local, regional, national, or global—would do well to acquaint themselves with Zen and the Art of Local History. It is a welcome reminder of what attracted many of us to the field of history and then kept us here. It speaks from the soul. Kammen and Beatty have produced a work that accurately defines the place of local history within the big tent of public history. It is a good introduction to local history and a road map of some of its contentious as well as more Zen-like paths.
— Journal of American History


Carol Kammen has been providing thoughtful commentary to History News readers for more than two decades. This volume is a retrospective of her columns followed by responses from her colleagues (and yours). Together, Carol and American Association for State and Local History’s own Bob Beatty have put together a book that will challenge your thinking and approaches to our work.

— Terry Davis, president and CEO, American Association for State and Local History


The only thing better than a Carol Kammen “On Doing Local History” essay is sixty-eight Carol Kammen essays. The only thing better than sixty-eight of Carol’s insightful, spot-on, wonderfully crafted essays is marrying each with a talented colleague laboring in our rich field somewhere in this great country who provides equally compelling commentary and reflection. This volume is a superb idea taken to the max—at once readable, cerebral, practical, philosophical, and fun. Buy it. Read it. Pass it on.

— D. Stephen Elliott, Director/CEO, Minnesota Historical Society


Carol Kammen and Bob Beatty provide timeless thought-fuel about the presence of local history in our daily lives. You’ll be engaged, inspired, and armed with a broader perspective that invites you to dig into the important task of making history accessible to others.

— Colleen Dilenschneider, chief market engagement office for IMPACTS and author/publisher of the blog Know Your Own Bone.


Zen and the Art of Local History

Cover Image
Hardback
Paperback
eBook
Summary
Summary
  • Zen and the Art of Local History is an engaging, interactive conversation that conveys the exciting nature of local history.

    Divided into six major themes the book covers the scope and breadth of local history:
    • Being a Local Historian
    • Topics and Sources
    • Staying Relevant
    • Getting it Right
    • Writing History
    • History Organizations

    Each chapter features one of Carol Kammen’s memorable editorials from History News.

    Her editorial is a “call.” Each is followed by a response from one of more than five dozen prominent players in state and local history. These Respondents include local and public historians, archivists, volunteers, and history professionals across the kaleidoscopic spectrum of local history. Among this group are Katherine Kane, Robert “Bob” Richmond, Charlie Bryan, and Cinnamon Catlin-Legutko.

    The result is a series of dialogues on important topics in the field of local history. This interactivity of these conversations makes
    Zen and the Art of Local History a unique offering in the public history field.
Details
Details
  • Rowman & Littlefield Publishers / AASLH
    Pages: 354 • Trim: 6 x 9
    978-1-4422-2689-0 • Hardback • August 2014 • $126.00 • (£97.00)
    978-1-4422-2690-6 • Paperback • August 2014 • $67.00 • (£52.00)
    978-1-4422-2691-3 • eBook • August 2014 • $63.50 • (£49.00)
    Series: American Association for State and Local History
    Subjects: History / United States / State & Local / General, History / Public History, Art / Museum and Historic Sites / Historic Sites and Houses
Author
Author
  • Carol Kammen has been writing about doing local history for many years. The first edition of this book came out in 1985; this edition is greatly pruned and expanded. She has edited The Encyclopedia of Local History (two editions) for Alta Mira Press and AASLH and has written editorials for History News since 1995. In addition she has written a history of her county, of the City in which she lives, and Cornell: Glorious to View (2003) and Part & Apart: The African American Experience at Cornell, 1865-1945 (2008) and edited First Person Cornell: Student’s Letters, Diaries, Email and Blogs (2006). She has also written two-dozen dramatic presentations using local history, including Between the Lines, Peaches and Bird, The Language of War and others and writes a history column for her local newspaper. She lives in Ithaca, New York, taught at Cornell University, and serves as the Tompkins County Historian.


    Bob Beatty is Vice President for Programs for the American Association for State & Local History where he leads AASLH’s professional development program including workshops, an annual meeting, affinity groups and other initiatives, and publications as editor of History News and a member of the AASLH Editorial Advisory Board. From 1999-2007 he directed the Education Department at the Orange County (FL) Regional History Center where he led or oversaw dozens of community outreach programs ranging from school partnerships, youth/family activities, adult programming, and community partnerships.
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
  • Foreword by Lorraine McConaghy
    Acknowledgements
    Introduction
    Chapter 1: About Being a Local Historian
    Call: Not for a Test, but History for Life, Response: Spencer Downing
    Call: Perambulation, Response: Aaron Sachs
    Call: Inappropriate Questions, Response: James L. Baggett
    Call: What We Tell the Youngsters, Response: Kate Betz
    Call: We Are Not Journalists, Response: Jeffrey J. Kollath
    Call: Local Knowledge, Response: Mary Alexander
    Call: Abby Hemenway, Response: Rebecca Conard
    Call: Water Buffalos, Wildebeests, and Gazelles, Response: Robert B. Townsend
    Call: Educating Our “Other” Audiences, Response: Karen Graham Wade
    Call: The Local History Apprentice, Response: Kate Tiller
    Call: Millenialism, Response: Robert Richmond
    Call: Taking the Prize, Response: Donald P. Zuris
    Call: History’s Long Rangers, Response: Michael Potaski
    Call: Retiring Sorts, Response: Richard L. Williams
    Chapter 2: The Clay for Our Wheels and the Pots We Make
    Call: Getting Involved, Response: Allyn Lord
    Call: Out of the Closet, Response: Paul Landry
    Call: The Clipping Point, Response: Scott Muir Stroh III
    Call: An Ode to Scrapbooks, Response: Kelly Nolin
    Call: The Envelope Please, Response: K. Allison Wickens
    Call; Replevin, Response: Galen R. Wilson
    Call: Local History and the Underground Railroad, Response: Dina Bailey and Richard C. Cooper
    Call: The Hall’s in Your Court(house), Response: James D. Folts
    Call: Down for the Count, Response: Lila Teresa Church
    Call: Small Changes, Response: Darlene Roth
    Call: Rethinking Local History, Response: Bruce Teeple
    Call: Around and About, Response: William L. Lang
    Call: Recording the Home Front, Response: Courtney L. Tollison
    Call: To Blog or Not to Blog, Response: Kate Theimer
    Chapter 3: Mingled Yarn
    Call: Community Education, Response: Lynne Ireland
    Call: Seeking Diversity, Response: Patricia Williams Lessane
    Call: History Tents, Response: Linda W. Chapin
    Call: Travel at Home, Response: Janet Vaughan
    Call: Travel at Home (Redux), Response: Amy H. Wilson
    Call: In Memoriam: Quite a Decade (Prelude and Postscript), Response; Jessica Dorman
    Call: Acts of Nature and Other Disturbing Events, Response: Beverly C. Tyler
    Call: When All is Lost, Response: Alice Parman
    Call: The Poor are Always Among Us, Response: Robert Archibald
    Call: What’s in a Name, Response: Mary E. Montgomery
    Chapter 4: Truth and Consequences
    Call: When Not Being Wrong is Not Good Enough, Response: Constantine Dillon
    Call: Ducking, Bobbing, and Looking Away, Response: Charles F. Bryan, Jr.
    Call: Unintended Consequences, Response: Joe Meehan
    Call: Making it Up, Response: Tim Grove
    Call: Truth and Fiction, Response: Mark T. Mannette
    Call: Just All the Facts, Ma’am, Just Not All the Facts, Response: Annette Atkins
    Chapter 5: Words in Stone
    Call: History for Our Times, Response: David A. Janssen
    Call: In Context, Response: Paige Lilly
    Call: Local History’s Audience, Response: J. Kent Calder and Thomas A. Mason
    Call: Community History, Response: Stephen L. Cox
    Call: The Things We Ignore, Response: Philip V. Scarpino
    Call: To Note or Not to Note, Response: Chris Brewer
    Call: Defining the Field, Response: Matthew Gibson
    Chapter 6: Work and Play in History’s Sandbox
    Call: A Fourteen-Step Program for Local History, Response: Cinnamon Catlin-Legutko
    Call: Clanking of Canes: A Survey of North American State and Local History, Response: Burt Logan
    Call: The Future of Historical Societies, Response: James M. Vaughan
    Call: An Abundance of History, Response: Lisa Anderson
    Call: Cultural Tourism, Response: Carolyn Brackett
    Call: In the Company of Our Peers, Response: Janice B. Klein
    Call: The Importance of a Good Chair, Response: Tobi Voigt
    Call: Out of the Box and Into the Fray, Response: Katherine D. Kane
    Call: Tripping over History, Response: Lawrence J. Yerdon
    Call: Radio Waves, Response: Stan Deaton
    Call: Random Acts, Response: Cynthia Cardona Melendez
    Call: Into the Archive, Response: Kathleen D. Roe
    Call: On Boards, Response: Kent Whitworth
    Call: Being On Board, Response: Kathleen M. O’Leary
    Title/Author index
    Subject index
    About the Authors


Reviews
Reviews
  • The only thing better than a Carol Kammen 'On Doing Local History' essay is sixty-eight Carol Kammen essays. The only thing better than sixty-eight of Carol's insightful, spot-on, wonderfully crafted essays is marrying each with a talented colleague laboring in our rich field somewhere in this great country who provides equally compelling commentary and reflection. This volume is a superb idea taken to the max - at once readable, cerebral, practical, philosophical, and fun. Buy it. Read it. Pass it on.
    — AASLH History News


    Carol Kammen...has a gift for putting into crafted simple prose the thoughts that many of us have floating around rather vaguely in our minds. Zen and the Art of Local History is a constantly stimulating read. I have rarely seen a better book about local history, or been more impressed by the combination of wisdom, humanity and practicality which it offers.

    — The Local Historian


    Those in search of the higher purpose of history—be it local, regional, national, or global—would do well to acquaint themselves with Zen and the Art of Local History. It is a welcome reminder of what attracted many of us to the field of history and then kept us here. It speaks from the soul. Kammen and Beatty have produced a work that accurately defines the place of local history within the big tent of public history. It is a good introduction to local history and a road map of some of its contentious as well as more Zen-like paths.
    — Journal of American History


    Carol Kammen has been providing thoughtful commentary to History News readers for more than two decades. This volume is a retrospective of her columns followed by responses from her colleagues (and yours). Together, Carol and American Association for State and Local History’s own Bob Beatty have put together a book that will challenge your thinking and approaches to our work.

    — Terry Davis, president and CEO, American Association for State and Local History


    The only thing better than a Carol Kammen “On Doing Local History” essay is sixty-eight Carol Kammen essays. The only thing better than sixty-eight of Carol’s insightful, spot-on, wonderfully crafted essays is marrying each with a talented colleague laboring in our rich field somewhere in this great country who provides equally compelling commentary and reflection. This volume is a superb idea taken to the max—at once readable, cerebral, practical, philosophical, and fun. Buy it. Read it. Pass it on.

    — D. Stephen Elliott, Director/CEO, Minnesota Historical Society


    Carol Kammen and Bob Beatty provide timeless thought-fuel about the presence of local history in our daily lives. You’ll be engaged, inspired, and armed with a broader perspective that invites you to dig into the important task of making history accessible to others.

    — Colleen Dilenschneider, chief market engagement office for IMPACTS and author/publisher of the blog Know Your Own Bone.


ALSO AVAILABLE

  • Cover image for the book To Sleep with the Angels: The Story of a Fire
  • Cover image for the book On Doing Local History, Third Edition
  • Cover image for the book Interpreting African American History and Culture at Museums and Historic Sites
  • Cover image for the book More Than a Game: A History of the African American Experience in Sport
  • Cover image for the book Pennsylvania Land Records: A History and Guide for Research
  • Cover image for the book The Birth of the FBI: Teddy Roosevelt, the Secret Service, and the Fight Over America's Premier Law Enforcement Agency
  • Cover image for the book Places of Worship: Exploring Their History
  • Cover image for the book Houses and Homes: Exploring Their History
  • Cover image for the book Slavery and Freedom in Delaware, 1639-1865
  • Cover image for the book Slavery and freedom in Delaware, 1639-1865
  • Cover image for the book Harlem: The Making of a Ghetto: Negro New York 1890-1930
  • Cover image for the book A Place to Remember: Using History to Build Community
  • Cover image for the book The Tennessee: The New River: Civil War to TVA, Volume Two
  • Cover image for the book The Pursuit of Local History: Readings on Theory and Practice
  • Cover image for the book A Wake for the Living
  • Cover image for the book Atlanta Will Fall: Sherman, Joe Johnston, and the Yankee Heavy Battalions
  • Cover image for the book Man in the Middle: The Reform & Influence of Henry Benjamin Whipple, the first Episcopal Bishop of Minnesota
  • Cover image for the book Sustaining Identity, Recapturing Heritage: Exploring Issues of Public History, Tourism, and Race in a Southern Rural Town
  • Cover image for the book Staten Island: Conservative Bastion in a Liberal City
  • Cover image for the book Navy Pier: A Chicago Landmark
  • Cover image for the book A Separate Place: The Formation of Clarke County, Virginia
  • Cover image for the book Local Schools: Exploring Their History
  • Cover image for the book To Sleep with the Angels: The Story of a Fire
  • Cover image for the book On Doing Local History, Third Edition
  • Cover image for the book Interpreting African American History and Culture at Museums and Historic Sites
  • Cover image for the book More Than a Game: A History of the African American Experience in Sport
  • Cover image for the book Pennsylvania Land Records: A History and Guide for Research
  • Cover image for the book The Birth of the FBI: Teddy Roosevelt, the Secret Service, and the Fight Over America's Premier Law Enforcement Agency
  • Cover image for the book Places of Worship: Exploring Their History
  • Cover image for the book Houses and Homes: Exploring Their History
  • Cover image for the book Slavery and Freedom in Delaware, 1639-1865
  • Cover image for the book Slavery and freedom in Delaware, 1639-1865
  • Cover image for the book Harlem: The Making of a Ghetto: Negro New York 1890-1930
  • Cover image for the book A Place to Remember: Using History to Build Community
  • Cover image for the book The Tennessee: The New River: Civil War to TVA, Volume Two
  • Cover image for the book The Pursuit of Local History: Readings on Theory and Practice
  • Cover image for the book A Wake for the Living
  • Cover image for the book Atlanta Will Fall: Sherman, Joe Johnston, and the Yankee Heavy Battalions
  • Cover image for the book Man in the Middle: The Reform & Influence of Henry Benjamin Whipple, the first Episcopal Bishop of Minnesota
  • Cover image for the book Sustaining Identity, Recapturing Heritage: Exploring Issues of Public History, Tourism, and Race in a Southern Rural Town
  • Cover image for the book Staten Island: Conservative Bastion in a Liberal City
  • Cover image for the book Navy Pier: A Chicago Landmark
  • Cover image for the book A Separate Place: The Formation of Clarke County, Virginia
  • Cover image for the book Local Schools: Exploring Their History
facebook icon twitter icon instagram icon linked in icon NEWSLETTERS
ABOUT US
  • Mission Statement
  • Employment
  • Privacy
  • Accessibility Statement
CONTACT
  • Company Directory
  • Publicity and Media Queries
  • Rights and Permissions
  • Textbook Resource Center
AUTHOR RESOURCES
  • Royalty Contact
  • Production Guidelines
  • Manuscript Submissions
ORDERING INFORMATION
  • Rowman & Littlefield
  • National Book Network
  • Ingram Publisher Services UK
  • Special Sales
  • International Sales
  • eBook Partners
  • Digital Catalogs
IMPRINTS
  • Rowman & Littlefield
  • Lexington Books
  • Hamilton Books
  • Applause Books
  • Amadeus Press
  • Backbeat Books
  • Bernan
  • Hal Leonard Books
  • Limelight Editions
  • Co-Publishing Partners
  • Globe Pequot
  • Down East Books
  • Falcon Guides
  • Gooseberry Patch
  • Lyons Press
  • Muddy Boots
  • Pineapple Press
  • TwoDot Books
  • Stackpole Books
PARTNERS
  • American Alliance of Museums
  • American Association for State and Local History
  • Brookings Institution Press
  • Center for Strategic & International Studies
  • Council on Foreign Relations
  • Fairleigh Dickinson University Press
  • Fortress Press
  • The Foundation for Critical Thinking
  • Lehigh University Press
  • United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
  • Other Partners...