Decolonizing German and European History at the Museum (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780472075102)

Decolonizing German and European History at the Museum examines efforts by European museums to investigate colonialism as part of an unprocessed past, confront its presence, and urge repair. A flurry of exhibitions and the overhaul of numerous large museums in the last decade signal that an emergent colonial memory culture is now reaching broader publics. Exhibitions pose the question of what Europeans owe to those they colonized.

Decolonizing German and European History at the Museum shows how museums can help visitors mourn historic violence and identify the contemporary agents, beneficiaries, victims, survivors, and resisters of colonial presence. At the same time, the book treats the museum as part of the racialized power relations that activists, academics, and artists have long protested against. This book asks whether museums have made the dream of activists, academics, and artists to build equitable futures more acceptable and more durable--or whether in packaging that dream for general audiences they curtail it. Confronting colonial violence, this book argues, pushes Europeans to face the histories of racism and urges them to envision antiracism at the global scale.

Author: Katrin Sieg
ISBN-10: 0472075101
ISBN-13: 9780472075102
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
Language: English
Published: 11/22/2021
Pages: 326
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.40lbs
Size: 9.10h x 6.20w x 1.00d

Review Citation(s):
Choice 09/01/2022