Description
Book SynopsisCombining information from hitherto-untapped archival sources, extensive interviews, a thorough review of the secondary literature, and considerable personal experience, Post gives the reader a behind-the-scenes view of disputes among curators, academics, and stakeholders that were sometimes private and at other times burst into headline news.
Trade ReviewPost's thoughtful elucidation of the exhibits and the ensuing controversies demonstrate the complexities of the environment in the national museum in the twentieth century. Further, this work documents the shifting priorities of the Smithsonian, revealing the many different actors that took part in the creation of both well-known exhibits and many smaller ones. The book also provides many interesting and important examples of the interconnections between historians of technology and the Smithsonian. This excellent work will be valuable to public historians as well as laypersons. Choice A pick for any collection strong in museum management and history. The result goes beyond a recommendation for arts holdings, examining how American history itself is documented and presented. Midwest Book Review A detailed insider's look at growth and change across the institution. The book offers a rich and readable intellectual biography of the Smithsonian. Journal of American History The Smithsonian finally gets its Washington insider-tells-all memoir. Who Owns America's Past? documents the value of the Smithsonian's distinctive culture-and also the way it has kept the institution from being all that it might be. The American Historian Weaves original primary source research, scholarly synthesis, and personal experiences into a highly readable study of the cultural history of America's most popular museum institution. -- Nick Sacco Museums and Social Issues Here is an eyewitness account of many of the personalities, controversies, artifacts, and interpretations that most of us know in their final, burnished form, upon the walls of the world's greatest history museum. Who Owns America's Past? is a needed book. American Historical Review This is an important book that examines the inner workings of the Smithsonian in ways that are both interesting and useful. There are no easy answers to the questions Post raises with this insightful text. Technology and Culture For readers curious about the upper stories and basement spaces beyond the exhibits, it provides access to decision makers and the collections they oversaw because the author regularly walked those spaces and conversed with their denizens... This book did not promise comprehensiveness or even an answer to the general question of 'who' or even 'what' defines history, but Post's account does provide a reminder that it is important to seek out the answer to that question in specific places because-particularly at one of the nation's most visible and influential institutions-it matters. -- Sally Kohlstedt Isis This is a most readable account written by an insider of a fascinating institution. The International Commitee for the Conservation of the Industrial Heritage
Table of ContentsPreface
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
1. A Chain of Events Linking Past to Present
2. Modernization
3. A Worthy Home for National Treasures
4. Allies and Critics
5. To Join in a Smithsonian Renaissance
6. A Special Kind of Insight
7. The Winged Gospel
8. Celebration or Education?
9. A Crisis of Representation
10. Small's World
11. Timely and Relevant Themes and Methods of Presentation
EPILOGUE What Is the Story?
Notes
Index
