Representing the Nation: A Reader in Heritage and Museums

Representing the Nation gathers key writings from leading thinkers in cultural studies, cultural history, and museum studies to ask what role cultural institutions play in creating and shaping our sense of ourselves as a nation. With an international perspective, the contributors investigate whether cultural artifacts can represent all of us equally, as members of a given nation. The book opens with an exploration of the strategies involved in creating and sustaining a national culture while the second part examines the way the past is preserved, represented, and consumed as our "heritage." Part three looks at the historical development of the public museum and the book concludes with a section that focuses on issues facing museums today.

Contributors: Richard D. Altick, Arjun Appadurai, Tony Bennett, Carol A. Breckenridge, James Clifford, Philip Dodd, Carol Duncan, David Goodman, Stuart Hall, Robert Hewison, Eric Hobsbawm, Kenneth Hudson, Sharon Macdonald, Colin Mercer, Kevin Robins, Chris Rojek, Robert W. Rydell, Raphael Samuel, Roger Silverstone, Anthony D. Smith, John Urry, Patrick Wright.