On Doing Local History (review)

True to its title, On Doing Local History is a practical guide for local historians. Carol Kammen is a professional historian and author of the column "On Doing Local History" published in History News: The Magazine of the American Association for State and Local History. In this book, she gives advice to those researching and writing local history and describes how she would like to see the field evolve. Now in its second edition, On Doing Local History should help newer local historians while still being of interest to those more experienced in the field.

Kammen begins her book with a history of the practice of writing local history: its beginnings in sixteenth-century Europe; the intentions, usually promotional and commemorative, of early local historians; and the development of the local history field, including its recent rise in popularity and the continuing rift between academic and local historians. Kammen is most compelling when she calls for local historians to widen the scope of their research. In her opinion, "[l]ocal history is, despite its limited geographical focus, a broad field of inquiry: it is the political, social, and economic history of a community and its religious and intellectual history too" (4). She encourages local historians to investigate the history of places outside their own communities, to go beyond the usual sources, and to document the history of those often overlooked. Kammen lists the usual local history subjects, including settlers, early major institutions, and railroads, among others, and suggests research and writing about less popular subjects and time periods such as the lives of the working class and twentieth-century history. Kammen tells of her experiences writing a column for a local newspaper and explains ways in which local historians can communicate their findings to the public, from books and articles to newspaper columns and exhibits, and how rewarding this exchange of information can be. Throughout the book, she stresses creativity and imagination, those intangible skills that, when combined with thorough research and good writing, elevate local history to something more meaningful on a broader scale.

Although local historians are clearly Kammen's primary audience, she has something to say to information professionals as well. When she appeals to local historians to "consciously expand beyond this base [the collection of existing local history written about a community's elite class], finding new ways to use the materials that are already in our collections and seeking additions to the archive of documents more representative of all the people of the past" (43), she reminds us of the importance of achieving increased diversity in collection development. It has long been the objective of archivists and librarians to be as inclusive as possible of all people in society in collection development, but this goal is seldom, if ever, attained. While Kammen offers no solution to this dilemma, reading her book may provide ideas about the kinds of material that might prove most valuable to historians. In the end, however, local historians will benefit most from this book and should be the main consideration when deciding whether or not to add On Doing Local History to a collection.