Exhibiting Atrocity

AMY SODARO is an associate professor of sociology at the Borough of Manhattan Community College, The City University of New York. She is coeditor of Memory and the Future: Transnational Politics, Ethics and Culture.

"This intelligent and cogently-constructed narrative is a significant addition to the growing literature on public commemoration over the past fifty years." - Jay Winter (coeditor of War and Remembrance in the Twentieth Century) "This intelligent and cogently-constructed narrative is a significant addition to the growing literature on public commemoration over the past fifty years." - Jay Winter (coeditor of War and Remembrance in the Twentieth Century) "Exhibiting Atrocity is an ambitious, significant study providing in-depth case studies of three memorial museums and how they attempt to narrate 'difficult history' and navigate the politics of memory. Accessible and wide-ranging, this interdisciplinary volume is an important, timely resource for students as well as specialists." - Joyce Apsel (author of Introducing Peace Museums) "Exhibiting Atrocity is an ambitious, significant study providing in-depth case studies of three memorial museums and how they attempt to narrate 'difficult history' and navigate the politics of memory. Accessible and wide-ranging, this interdisciplinary volume is an important, timely resource for students as well as specialists." - Joyce Apsel (author of Introducing Peace Museums) “An original and unique study…Exhibiting Atrocity: Memorial Museums and the Politics of Past Violence is an especially and unreservedly recommended addition to both community and academic library Human Rights and Cultural History collections [and] Museum Studies supplemental reading lists.”(Midwest Book Review) “An original and unique study…Exhibiting Atrocity: Memorial Museums and the Politics of Past Violence is an especially and unreservedly recommended addition to both community and academic library Human Rights and Cultural History collections [and] Museum Studies supplemental reading lists.”(Midwest Book Review) "Sodaro examines how many communities, be they groups or countries, work through staggering events like 9/11 by building museums to parse through them." (SUM) "Sodaro examines how many communities, be they groups or countries, work through staggering events like 9/11 by building museums to parse through them." (SUM) "Exhibiting Atrocity sets a precedent that will allow researchers and visitors to recognize these museums for the political projects that they really are – neither good nor bad but always potentially very dangerous. The greatest danger inherent in the ways in which memorial museums exhibit atrocity is that they routinely fail to expose the fragility, vulnerability and precariousness of political systems and norms. This leaves us vulnerable to manipulation, demagoguery, and the authoritarian personalities lying in wait." (European Journal of Cultural and Political Socioloy) "Exhibiting Atrocity sets a precedent that will allow researchers and visitors to recognize these museums for the political projects that they really are – neither good nor bad but always potentially very dangerous. The greatest danger inherent in the ways in which memorial museums exhibit atrocity is that they routinely fail to expose the fragility, vulnerability and precariousness of political systems and norms. This leaves us vulnerable to manipulation, demagoguery, and the authoritarian personalities lying in wait." (European Journal of Cultural and Political Socioloy) "A welcome addition to a growing body of literature within memory studies that examines the global turn in using museums to commemorate past mass atrocities. This book demonstrates that there is much more research to be done and offers inquiring minds a useful starting point." (Memory Studies) "A welcome addition to a growing body of literature within memory studies that examines the global turn in using museums to commemorate past mass atrocities. This book demonstrates that there is much more research to be done and offers inquiring minds a useful starting point." (Memory Studies) New Books Network: New Books in Jewish Studies interview with Amy Sodaro (New Books Network: New Books in Jewish Studies) New Books Network: New Books in Jewish Studies interview with Amy Sodaro (New Books Network: New Books in Jewish Studies)

• ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction                         1          Memorial Museums: The Emergence of a New Form                                                                   2          The US Holocaust Memorial Museum: The Creation of a “Living Memorial”3          The House of Terror: “The Only One of Its Kind”                                              4          The Kigali Genocide Memorial Centre: Building a “Lasting Peace”                                           5          The Museum of Memory and Human Rights: “A Living Museum for Chile’s Memory”          6          The National September 11 Memorial Museum: “To Bear Solemn Witness”7          Memorial Museums: Promises and Limits                                                                                   NotesBibliography                                                                                                                   Index