I am also interested in public history like this- how we remember things, why we remember things!  What history becomes very much part of the public imagination like the Titanic does.  Why people remember the Titanic so well and not know about the Empress of Ireland in the least.  That sort of thing.  How what we know changes over time.  The Titanic from A Night to Remember and the 1997 film becomes what people know, and that becomes legitimate history just because it’s widespread, like the idea of Richard III being a villain staying in our minds because of Shakespeare.  Pop culture is just as much a part of the narrative as anything else.  

jeez what a ramble!