Good Enough for Government Work

Government-supported history is as broad and many faceted as the field of public history itself, including not only research and public programming in museums and historic sites but also client-oriented research in the executive, legislative, and military branches of government. This chapter focuses on the work of historians who help to solve problems and provide context for the ongoing work of government agencies and institutions. Serving policy and decision makers, they capture and preserve records, artifacts, and other historical materials; they write institutional histories and policy analysis and they help answer inquiries from citizens and journalists about the work of government. Historians who do this work may be permanent government employees, but they may also be contractors for government agencies, serve as researchers and writers for independent government commissions, or staff special government-funded projects housed at educational and nonprofit institutions.