Ethics and the Practice of History

Abstract

Since 1974, the American Historical Association has made a Statement of Professional Standards available to its members and other interested parties. These standards have provided the foundation for discussions of ethics in the discipline. However, as standards for behavior and participation in the field have changed, as new challenges – such as digital scholarship – have presented themselves, and as marginalized scholars have demanded a historical profession that represents their scholarly and methodological interests, this foundation has shifted over time. As the historical profession has become more diverse, so the ethics of historical research have diversified. While this chapter concerns itself with historical ethics in a US context, the issues raised are applicable in other global contexts.