museum and knowledge politics

Identity museums

I’ve always been pretty tired of identity museums, like the politically correct and historically incorrect National Museum of the American Indian in Washington DC. As Edward Rothstein ends his critical analysis of identity museums in The New York Times the other day: The Enlightenment had its limitations, of course. But it also shaped the great […]

I’ve always been pretty tired of identity museums, like the politically correct and historically incorrect National Museum of the American Indian in Washington DC. As Edward Rothstein ends his critical analysis of identity museums in The New York Times the other day:

The Enlightenment had its limitations, of course. But it also shaped the great museums of the West. And many identity museums have yet to absorb that more transcendent vision.

(thanks to Jim Edmonson for the tip).