Experiments in Making History Personal Public Discourse, Complexity, and Community Building

This article is about two initiatives at the Brooklyn Historical Society that extend our efforts to build community and create a platform for ongoing public engagement, in the face of emotionally charged topics. The first project is a powerful oral history program and exhibition that promotes conversation about the war in Vietnam, the war's emotional impact on the soldiers who served, and the significance of the Vietnam War to people's personal, present day experiences. The second is a project slated to open in 2012, that tells the story of abolition in Brooklyn through an ambitious partnership that will bring important but little known local history into the public sphere, and provide multiple platforms for community discourse about the meaning of history in our present day lives. In both cases, these efforts tackle tough subject matter, and suggest that there are essential links between the creation of effective public history, the process of building community, and the power of learning.