Abstract

This essay serves as an introduction to the «Memoria e Ricerca» 2017 issue on History Museums and Public History. The papers we present were selected from panel presentations delivered during the International Federation for Public History (IFPH) 2nd international conference in Jinan, China in August 2015, which was part of the 22nd Conference of the International Committee for the Historical Sciences (ICHS). The introductory essay engages with the use and abuse of history in the context of history museums in a global context, with a specific focus on the difficult interaction between museum curators and political power. It questions the role of public historians in applied contexts such as history museums and with History and Memory issues applied to the inauguration and refurbishment of national and supranational history museums and with the concept of national identity.