Introduction: The national mall and memory of painful past -- Framing painful past for the nation : the Smithsonian Museum of American History -- American liberation, part I : the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum -- American liberation, part II : the National Museum of African American History And Culture -- Remembering and forgetting genocide : the National Museum of The American Indian -- Conclusion: Looking back, moving forward.
Summary
"This book argues that acknowledgment of painful pasts at the geographic and ideological center of American national identity is crucial for addressing inequities in the present. The study analyzes four major museums on the National Mall that are dedicated to traumatic histories: the Smithsonian Museum of American History, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the National Museum of the American Indian, and the new National Museum of African American History and Culture. Paying close attention to museum narratives and visual displays, Gruenewald explains how even some of the most harrowing and disturbing aspects of America's history have been and are still framed to support core American ideologies"-- Provided by publisher.
