New York Historical Society

Abstract The struggle American parents face accessing high-quality, affordable child care for children under five has been a topic of increasingly frequent and intense public debate in recent years,...

"Making an Antislavery Nation: Lincoln, Douglas, and the Battle over Freedom." American Nineteenth Century History, 20(1), pp. 70–71

If you work in a college or university library and have ever tried to partner with a community group or heritage organization or are contemplating doing same, you will probably be well served by looking into this slim volume. Comprising nineteen short case studies, the book provides a wide variety of examples of the challenges and issues faced by institutions trying to collaborate with “participatory heritage” groups. Occasionally the partnership succeeds, but often projects pursued with the best of intentions end in frustration and disappointment. The very definition of participatory heritage offered in the introduction implicitly lays out the problems for formally organized, professionally constituted institutions: “Participatory heritage could be thought of as a space, a space in which individuals engage in cultural activities outside of formal institutions for the purpose of knowledge-sharing and co-creating with others. Those engaged with participatory heritage collaborations tend to place importance on content and less importance on medium, process, or professional expertise; thus they acknowledge a diversity of expertise and operate from a premise of shared authority. The collaborations are bottom-up in nature, as they emerge from connections among individuals rather than organizations.” (xv)

An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content.

Serfs, Peasants, and Socialists. By William Derman. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1973. x, 282 pp. $15.00. The Glassworkers of Carmaux: French Craftsmen and Political Action in a Nineteenth‐Century City. By Joan Wallach Scott. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1974. xiv, 239 pp. $10.00 The Anzin Company, 1800–1833: Big Business in the Early Stages of the French Industrial Revolution. By Reed G. Geiger. Philadelphia, University of Delaware Press, 1975. xiii, 345 pp. $15.00 Alexander McDougall and the American Revolution in New York. By Roger J. Champagne. Schenectady, N.Y.: State American Revolution Bicentennial Commission and Union College Press, 1975. xiii, 280 pp. $10.95. Artisans for Independence: Philadelphia Mechanics and the American Revolution. By Charles S. Olton. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1975. xii, 172 pp. $9.95.