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Historical Edutainment: New Forms and Practices of Popular History?

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Palgrave Handbook of Research in Historical Culture and Education

Abstract

Korte and Paletschek start from the observation that more people encounter history as “edutainment” today than through formal education. Represented or performed in all media, often mixing fact and fiction, popular-history products entertain as much as they instruct. The chapter asks how new this phenomenon actually is and points to antecedents in the nineteenth century. It also surveys the various concepts and theoretical frameworks with which popular history has been approached in different academic traditions and claims that popular history has evolved into a truly interdisciplinary field. The chapter finally uses the 2014 centenary of the outbreak of World War to show how popular history ties in with academic reinterpretations of the war.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. English Department, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany

    Barbara Korte

  2. History Department, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany

    Sylvia Paletschek

Authors
  1. Barbara Korte
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  2. Sylvia Paletschek
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Campus de Cantoblanco, Autónoma University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain

    Mario Carretero

  2. Ruhr Universitat Bochum, Bochum, Germany

    Stefan Berger

  3. Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communication, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

    Maria Grever

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Korte, B., Paletschek, S. (2017). Historical Edutainment: New Forms and Practices of Popular History?. In: Carretero, M., Berger, S., Grever, M. (eds) Palgrave Handbook of Research in Historical Culture and Education. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-52908-4_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-52908-4_10

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-137-52907-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-137-52908-4

  • eBook Packages: HistoryHistory (R0)

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