Representing the Nation: A Reader : Histories, Heritage and Museums

Front Cover
Jessica Evans, David Boswell
Psychology Press, 1999 - Art - 471 pages

Gathering key writings from leading thinkers in cultural studies, cultural history, and museum studies, Representing the Nation: A reader explores the role cultural institutions play in creating and shaping our sense of ourselves as a nation.

With an international perspective focusing on the USA, France, Australia, the UK and India, leading figures and authors, including Tony Bennet, Ralph Samuel and Carol Duncan examine the way the past is preserved, represented and consumed as our 'heritage'.

Written in three sections, the book examines:

  • strategies involved in creating and sustaining a national culture
  • the growth of heritage culture, from the founding of the National Trust in 1895 to the heritage acts of the 1980s
  • why it has become important for nations to preserve the past and in whose name is it preserved and displayed
  • the historical development of the public museum
  • issues and difficulties facing museums today and the competing demands and interests of public funding bodies, tourists and local communities.

For the disciplines of both museum studies and cultural studies this will be vital reading material, and is also perfect as a course reader for a new MA in media and cultural studies.

From inside the book

Contents

David Boswell
11
Stuart Hall
33
Eric Hobsbawm
61
David Boswell
111
Robert Hewison
151
Raphael Samuel
163
Chris Rojek
185
John Urry
208
Robert W Rydell
273
Tony Bennett
332
Jessica Evans
365
Kenneth Hudson
371
Tony Bennett
380
Colin Mercer
394
Arjun Appadurai and
404
Sharon Macdonald and Roger Silverstone
421

PART THREE
233
Richard D Altick
240
David Goodman 258
260
James Clifford
435
Index
459
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