Perfecting the past

“Pride—tribal, local, or national—is what most museums are
for,” says David Lowenthal in The Heritage Crusade and the Spoils of History. He
picks through what we display or don’t display in museums, for example, as clues
to heritage—the pick of the past, the epitome of a country’s self-image.
Absorbing material, well written. Published by Cambridge University Press,
£12.95/$17.95, ISBN 0521635624.