Book Event: David Young, "The Battles of Germantown:Effective Public History

Historic Germantown and Big Blue Marble Bookstore are happy to partner up again to bring another great book event. David W. Young’s “The Battles of Germantown: Effective Public History in America” celebrates our neighborhood’s struggles to keep our past alive, thriving, and part of the future of our community.
David will be speaking about his research and about how lessons from Germantown on how the public engages the past can be used to guide cities across the country.

Books will be for sale, and would make much-beloved presents for local history buffs.

Author David Young, a neighborhood resident who worked at Germantown historic sites for decades, uses his practitioner’s perspective to give examples of what he calls “effective public history.” The Battles of Germantown shows how the region celebrated “Negro Achievement Week” in 1928 and, for example, how social history research proved that the neighborhood’s Johnson House was a station on the Underground Railroad. These encounters have useful implications for addressing questions of race, history, and memory, as well as issues of urban planning and economic revitalization.

Germantown’s historic sites use public history and provide leadership to motivate residents in an area challenged by job loss, population change, and institutional inertia. The Battles of Germantown illustrates how understanding and engaging with the past can benefit communities today.