La comunicazione storica come servizio sociale. Il caso della Società di storia patria di Lecce

Today the role of history as a formative discipline and, in general, as a mental attitude to the rational explanation of facts appears to be going through a crisis. Implicitly in the documents of the European and national institutions and, more explicitly, in the attitudes of most students and public opinion, the reduction of the educational purpose of historical knowledge has become evident.. The author believes that the most appropriate answers to overcome this crisis relate to the history of the territory and to education for active citizenship. In this essay the activity of the Lecce department of the National History Society for Puglia is analyzed, aiming at the reinterpretation of the local culture in the light of current cultural and socio-economic needs.