ABSTRACT
The professionalization of historical practices in the late 19th and early 20th centuries encouraged historians to look for scientific objectivity in their work. However, the search for objectivity did not stop pragmatic approaches. This materialized in what Benjamin Schambaugh — historian and first Superintendent of the State Historical Society of Iowa — called “applied history.” In 1909, he stated:
I do not know that the phrase “Applied History” is one that has thus far been employed by students of history and politics … But I believe that the time has come when it can be used with both propriety and profit.
(Conard 2002, 33)