How History Shaped Our Times
What is history? How do historians do their work? And why does it matter?
Former executive director of the American Historical Association James R. Grossman has been deeply involved in navigating the shifting meaning of the past and how it is being used as a tool today. In a conversation with David Trowbridge, Grossman discusses the nature of these changes, how memory and history clash and combine to form our concept of ourselves as Americans, and the role of historians in these debates.
Grossman led the AHA from 2010 to 2025. Before that, he was vice president for research and education at the Newberry Library and taught at the University of Chicago and the University of California, San Diego. He’s the author of Land of Hope: Chicago, Black Southerners, and the Great Migration and A Chance to Make Good: African Americans, 1900-1929. He’s also served as a consultant on history-related projects with the BBC, Smithsonian, theater companies, filmmakers, museums, libraries, and more.
Trowbridge is an associate research professor of digital and public humanities at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. His research and teaching focuses on using technology to connect people to history. In addition to writing the textbook, A History of the United States, he also created Clio, a free website and app that gives people information about historical and cultural sites. He is a co-founder of the Kansas City Monuments Coalition, which launched in 2024.
A recording of this event will be available on the Library’s YouTube channel.
This event is co-sponsored by: KCMC, a partnership of preservation and commemorative organizations across Kansas City, is supported by the Center for Digital and Public Humanities at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and funded by the Mellon Foundation.
