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History, Disrupted

How Social Media and the World Wide Web Have Changed the Past

Palgrave Macmillan

Authors:

  • Offers the first comprehensive account of how the Internet can change our understanding of the past
  • Explores how history intersects with today’s most pressing debates about technology, politics, and the media
  • Examines how 'eHistory' has been created, whether it is credible, and how it has impacted politics and society

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Table of contents (10 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-viii
  2. Introduction

    • Jason Steinhauer
    Pages 1-8
  3. The Crowd-Sourced Past

    • Jason Steinhauer
    Pages 19-31
  4. Nostalgia on Demand

    • Jason Steinhauer
    Pages 33-41
  5. The Viral Past

    • Jason Steinhauer
    Pages 43-55
  6. The Visual Past

    • Jason Steinhauer
    Pages 57-71
  7. The Newsworthy Past

    • Jason Steinhauer
    Pages 73-85
  8. The Storytelling Past

    • Jason Steinhauer
    Pages 87-97
  9. History.AI

    • Jason Steinhauer
    Pages 99-106
  10. Does History Have a Future?

    • Jason Steinhauer
    Pages 107-117
  11. Back Matter

    Pages 119-160

About this book

The Internet has changed the past. Social media, Wikipedia, mobile networks, and the viral and visual nature of the Web have inundated the public sphere with historical information and misinformation, changing what we know about our history and History as a discipline. This is the first book to chronicle how and why it matters. Why does History matter at all? What role do history and the past play in our democracy? Our economy? Our understanding of ourselves? How do questions of history intersect with today’s most pressing debates about technology; the role of the media; journalism; tribalism; education; identity politics; the future of government, civilization, and the planet? At the start of a new decade, in the midst of growing political division around the world, this information is critical to an engaged citizenry. As we collectively grapple with the effects of technology and its capacity to destabilize our societies, scholars, educators and the general public should be aware of how the Web and social media shape what we know about ourselves - and crucially, about our past. 

Authors and Affiliations

  • Washington, DC, USA

    Jason Steinhauer

About the author

Jason Steinhauer is a Global Fellow at the Wilson Center in the USA. He is the founder and host of History Club on Clubhouse with more than 100,000 followers, and was the Founding Director of the Lepage Center for History in the Public Interest at Villanova University, USA, from 2017 - 2020.  A public historian with over twenty years of experience in major cultural and historical institutions in the US, Steinhauer is the Founder of the History Communication Institute and the creator of the field of History Communication, which examines how history gets communicated on the World Wide Web. He has written for CNN, TIME, The Washington Post, Poynter, Inside Higher Ed, the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Foreign Policy Research Institute (where he is a Senior Fellow). He has also delivered lectures overseas on behalf of the US Department of State, created a history podcast for the John W. Kluge Center at the Library of Congress, and appeared on C-SPAN’s American History TV.

Bibliographic Information

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 19.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 27.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access