From Business History to history as business
During the last decades has a new trend emerged in Denmark: history has become a commodity and the market is booming. Historical documentaries, podcast, many historical novels, books, and new historical magazines has become top-sellers. Events like historical markets, festival and historical role-plays for e.g. Vikings have emerged, and we have even seen an annual History Fair, which become a huge success.
The interest for history is however not limited to new forms and new media, this can be seen by the fact that the history museums on average have doubled the number of visitors, despite a general increase in the average fare.
History has thus become popular and sold as goods traded at a market. In contrast to many of the other sectors where history are produced and circulated like educational system or universities are formally trained historians not the only or dominant players at this market for history.
The paper will analyze the phenomenon of the history-market and history as business, and discuss three connected issues:
1. Why do we see an increased market for an ‘old-fashioned’ thing as history in modern world of speed, globalization and digitalization?
2. What ‘kinds’ of history is exchanged and sold at commercial market.
3. Who are the consumers at the market and why do they buy ‘history’