"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, historical novels, and new historical magazines has become top-sellers. Events like historical markets, festival and historical role-plays for e.g. Vikings have emerged, and an annual History Fair, has become a huge success. The interest for history is not limited to new forms and new media. An old form like the history museums have 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 market for history and history, 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? The hypothesis is that the answer is to be found in a growing market for identity where history can be used as resources for identity production.
2. What ‘kinds’ of history is exchanged and sold at commercial market? The hypothesis is that the historical products circulated at the market are historical product that are related to identity issues - and that is for most parts not academic or critical history
3. Who are the consumers at the market? The hypothesis is that the dominating consumer group in this market are middle-aged women with university education. It is a segment that we mostly don’t associate with identity issues and identity politics.