Memorial Museums: The Global Rush to Commemorate Atrocities [Paperback]

The past 25 years has seen an extraordinary boom in a new kind of cultural complex: the memorial museum. These seek to research, represent, commemorate and teach on the subject of dreadful, violent histories. With World War and Holocaust memorials as precursors, the kinds of events now recognized include genocide in Armenia, Cambodia, Rwanda and the Balkans, state repression in Eastern Europe, apartheid in South Africa, terrorism in the United States, political disappearances in Chile and Argentina, massacres in China and Taiwan, and more.

This book is the first of its kind to map these new institutions and cultural spaces, which, although varying widely in size, style and political situation, are nonetheless united in their desire to promote peace, tolerance and the avoidance of future violence. Moving across nations and contexts, Memorial Museums critically analyzes the tactics of these institutions and gauges their wider public significance.

A significant study of contemporary museological practices, offering a wealth of insights into how objects, images and exhibition spaces contribute to the politically charged field of commemoration and remembrance. Andrea Witcomb, Deakin University, Melbourne

Williams's book offers a rigorous analysis of the key issues and should be read by anyone involved in a memorial project. Suzanne Bardgett, Oral History

This book provides a critical survey of issues on memorial museums: what they contain; why they have proliferated worldwide in this particular sociopolitical epoch; the basis of their appeal for visitors; the effect that their creation might have on other kinds of museums and heritage sites; and if they will become a permanent feature of the urban landscape and of public historical consciousness. cabi.org (July 2008)

Williams's work is best suited to for a specialized aulƒ)