FIRST ANALYSIS 750 WORDS Does Public History serve a function in society? If so, what is that function or are those functions? In an essay of at least 750 words, discuss the value and purpose of Public History. Support your answers with information from the assigned readings and the articles you researched. Historians generally use Chicago/Turabian style footnotes. If you prefer you may use MLA or APA citations. No matter which style you use, it is most important is that you cite your sources with a clear and consistent style. Accurate citations of quality sources add to the credibility of your work and enable the reader to distinguish your unique analytical ideas from the ideas of the scholars that you have cited. SECOND ANALYSIS 150 WORDS (DO NOT RELATE THIS ANALYSIS IN ANY WAY TO THE OTHERS) As noted in the content guide, Jennifer Evans begins her definition of Public History with a practical understanding of the field, but she also describes it as academic discipline. Others offer their own definitions; some define Public History in terms of employment; an Australian Professor describes how the definition may change from culture to culture. More definitions and other perspectives of the meaning and purpose of Public History can be found at the National Council on Public History's page What Is Public History? In your assigned readings a practitioner in the field, Ms. Mooney-Melvin, and the scholar David Glassberg provide additional perspectives, meanings that consider the effect of Public History as well as the practice. The article you research may yield more meanings of Public History. THIRD ANALYSIS -DISCUSSION PIECE  150 WORDS (DO NOT RELATE THIS TO ANY OF THE OTHER ANALYSIS) Why should we preserve the past? Is it just because it is interesting? Daniel Glassberg's and Mooney-Melvin's essays, and our discussion about the definition of Public History, address some of the reasons for preservation. However, the preservation of the past is often done in a public space, and involves competing use for that public space. The conflict is not just between the uses of the past, but the uses of the present.  The New York Times article, "Ancient City in Mali Rankled by Rules for Life," discusses the problem of people who are not allowed to update their primitive houses because of their historic value. This former center of trade and commerce had a glorious past, and that past in the present serves both as part of a national historic identity and a source of badly needed tourist dollars, but as one resident said, "who wants to live on a dirt floor." This is an American concern as well. In Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Springfield, Massachusetts, and other American cities, preservationists interested in saving buildings to sustain important cultural memories, work in neighborhoods occupied by people who may have little cultural connection to the memory being preserved. The more recent arrivals are interested in adapting the buildings to their present needs and creating a cultural history of their own. If you are aware of a such a conflict in your own community, please share your experience with the class. The adjacent photo shows a potential solution to the conflict between preservation of the past and physical needs of the present. In this commonly used solution in New York City, the historic exterior is preserved, while the interior is reworked. When preservation is done this way is anything of substance saved? Does it teach us anything of the past? Why should we preserve the past? What value does it have for the present? How do we balance preservation with progress?