ABSTRACT
The general public now engages with the past in more ways than ever before – from conventional books to movies to digital gaming to immersive experiences like reenactments and living history sites. In other words, audiences for history move through a variety of genres, many of which professional historians haven’t thought much about. The chapter urges historians to examine the relationship between historical understanding, historical writing, and the way we communicate – or don’t – with a variety of audiences. Further, the chapter argues that reasserting our professional authority through multiple genres is the only way that historians can expect our work to matter much beyond the narrow confines of our academic worlds.
