Would someone be kind enough to provide me with a definition of this term I see used frequently on history subs? I actually did Google this and I saw nothing directing me to a definition of the term, mostly links about the history of pop music. What is Pop History, is the term derogatory, how is it different from regular history? Very curious about this.
Pop history, also known as "popular history", is essentially history written for the general public. This is to differentiate from academic history, which are academic writings written by academics primarily to be understood and read and discussed by other academics.
Most members of the public aren't going to have access to the latest articles in historical journals. Furthermore, many academic works tend to be rather dense and could be confusing for people untrained in reading and understanding historical works. Pop history books allow members of the general public to read about history without needing to subscribe to journal databases such as JSTOR or the like.
The term "pop history" is not inherently derogatory, although it might seem so depending on who's talking and depending on the context. Let me be clear, many pop history books are terrible, either because of
However, that does not mean that all pop history books are bad history or make bad historical claims or are biased towards a certain viewpoint. That just means that when choosing a pop history book to read (or, really, any historical text in general), you want to evaluate what you're reading and critically access the sources, claims, and citations used.