Museums, modern concepts of culture, and ideas about difference arose together and are inextricably entwined. Relationships of difference-notably, of gender, ethnicity, nationality, and race-have become equally important concerns of scholarship in humanities and contemporary museum practice. Museums and Difference offers the perspectives of scholars and museum professionals in tandem, using the concept of difference to reexamine how museums construct themselves, their collections, and their publics. Essays explore a wide range of examples from around the world and from the 19th century to the present, including case studies of special exhibitions as well as broad surveys of institutions in Europe, the United States, and Japan.

How museums construct themselves, their collections, and their publics

About the Author

Daniel J. Sherman is Professor of History and Director of the Center for 21st Century Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He is author of The Construction of Memory in Interwar France and editor (with Terry Nardin) of Terror, Culture, Politics (IUP, 2006).

Reviews

. . . fascinating and probing treatments of issues that press on both museum workers and folklorists.October 15, 2008

-- Lee Haring * Brooklyn College (Emeritus) *

Museum and Difference is about the role that museums play in shaping the stories that we tell about who we are and how we are different from other people. It is an interesting subject.Jan. 23, 2009

-- Matt Shinn * Museum Practice Magazine *



Book Information
ISBN 9780253219350
Author Daniel J. Sherman
Format Paperback
Page Count 400
Imprint Indiana University Press
Publisher Indiana University Press
Weight(grams) 667g