Product Description

In a series of richly detailed case studies from Britian, Australia and North America, Tony Bennett investigates how nineteenth- and twentieth-century museums, fairs and exhibitions have organized their collections, and their visitors.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #134314 in Books
• Published on: 1995-05-04
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

From the Back Cover
What is the cultural function of the museum? How did modern museums evolve? Tony Bennett's invigorating study enriches and challenges our understanding of the museum, placing it at the centre of modern relations of culture and government. Bennett argues that the public museum should be understood not just as a place of instruction but as a reformatory of manners in which a wide range of regulated social routines and performances take place. Discussing the historical development of museums alongside that of the fair and the international exhibition, he sheds new light upon the relationship between modern forms of official and popular culture. In a series of richly detailed case studies from Britain, Australia and North America, Bennett investigates how nineteenth- and twentieth-century museums, fairs and exhibitions have organised their collections, and their visitors. His use of Foucaultian perspectives and his consideration of museums in relation to other cultural institutions of display provides a distinctive perspective on contemporary museum policies and politics.

Customer Reviews

A classic read in museum studies
This volume gathers together articles Tony Bennett published earlier on in various journals.

Bennett is interested in the formation of museums in the 19th century and later on in the 20th century, and on the educational and intructional intentions and objectives as translated in their arragements by the 'inventors' of museums. Bennett therefore focuses on the conceptual side of museums rather than on their reception by their audience.

In particular, Bennett addresses the theoretical and practical connections between museums, fairs, and international exhibitions.

Because the various chapters are written from a position within cultural studies, this book should appeal to a wide readership, and should still be relevant, although all articles have been written in the 1980s and 1990s.

It can be at times a difficult read, but it is also thought-provoking and inspiring.