Contested Histories in Public Space

by Walkowitz, Daniel J.; Knauer, Lisa Maya

• ISBN13: 9780822342366
• ISBN10: 0822342367
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-02-01
• Publisher: Duke Univ Pr

Summary

Contested Histories in Public Spacebrings multiple perspectives to bear on historical narratives presented to the public in museums, monuments, texts, and festivals around the world, from Paris to Kathmandu, from the Mexican state of Oaxaca to the waterfront of Wellington, New Zealand. Paying particular attention to how race and empire are implicated in the creation and display of national narratives, the contributing historians, anthropologists, and other scholars delve into representations of contested histories at such "sites" as a British Library exhibition on the East India Company, a Rio de Janeiro shantytown known as "the cradle of samba," the Ellis Island immigration museum, and high-school history textbooks in Ecuador.Several contributors examine how the experiences of indigenous groups and the imperial past are incorporated into public histories in British Commonwealth nations: in Te Papa, New Zealandrs"s national museum; in the First Peoplesrs" Hall at the Canadian Museum of Civilization; and, more broadly, in late-twentieth-century Australian culture. Still others focus on the role of governments in mediating contested racialized histories: for example, the post-apartheid history of South Africars"s Voortrekker Monument, originally designed as a tribute to the Voortrekkers who colonized the countryrs"s interior. Among several essays describing how national narratives have been challenged are pieces on a dispute over how to represent Nepali history and identity, on representations of Afrocuban religions in contemporary Cuba, and on the installation in the French Pantheon in Paris of a plaque honoring Louis Delgregrave;s, a leader of Guadeloupean resistance to French colonialism.Contributors. Paul Amar, Paul Ashton, O. Hugo Benavides, Laurent Dubois, Richard Flores, Durba Ghosh, Albert Grundlingh, Paula Hamilton, Lisa Maya Knauer, Charlotte Macdonald, Mark Salber Phillips, Ruth B. Phillips, Deborah Poole, Anne M. Rademacher, Daniel J. Walkowitz

Author Biography

Daniel J. Walkowitz is Professor of History, Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis, and Director of Experiential Education at New York University. Lisa Maya Knauer is Assistant Professor of Anthropology and African and African American Studies at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth. They are editors of Memory and the Impact of Political Transformation in Public Space, also published by Duke University Press.

Table of Contents

About the Series	p. vii
Introduction Memory, Race, and the Nation in Public Spaces Lisa Maya Knauer and Daniel J. Walkowitz	p. 1
First Things First
Two Peoples, One Museum: Biculturalism and Visitor "Experience" at Te Papa-"Our Place," New Zealand's New National Museum	p. 31
Contesting Time, Place, and Nation in the First Peoples' Hall of the Canadian Museum of Civilization	p. 49
"Unfinished Business": Public History in a Postcolonial Nation	p. 71
Colonial Legacies And Winners' Tales
Exhibiting Asia in Britain: Commerce, Consumption, and Globalization	p. 101
The Alamo: Myth, Public History, and the Politics of Inclusion	p. 122
Ellis Island Redux: The Imperial Turn and the Race of Ethnicity	p. 136
State Stories
A Cultural Conundrum? Old Monuments and New Regimes: The Voortrekker Monument as Symbol of Afrikaner Power in a Postapartheid South Africa	p. 157
Narratives of Power, the Power of Narratives: The Failing Foundational Narrative of the Ecuadorian Nation	p. 178
Affective Distinctions: Race and Place in Oaxaca	p. 197
Under-Stated Stories
Marking Remembrance: Nation and Ecology in Two Riverbank Monuments in Kathmandu	p. 229
Saving Rio's "Cradle of Samba": Outlaw Uprisings, Racial Tourism, and the Progressive State in Brazil	p. 249
Afrocuban Religion, Museums, and the Cuban Nation	p. 280
Haunting Delgrès	p. 311
Bibliography	p. 329
Contributors	p. 353
Index	p. 357
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