Museums offer sights into how the world works, what it means to be human in all of its manifestations, how people are related to other species, and what they have achieved through the ages. And museums help kids develop their distinctive sense of self, both by seeing their own reflections in certain respects, and by judging themselves against other stuff that is there on offer. Museums supply excitement, wonderment, instruction, forbidden pleasures, enchantment, and escape, all in one extraordinary spot.' - extract from Chapter 3, 'The First Shall Be The Last: Picturing indigenous peoples and the sins of long ago'. Mounting Queen Victoria is an indispensable guide to the politics of culture and identity in the South African public sphere.

A study of the American cultural wars taking place in controversial museum exhibitions Museums have become ground zero in America's culture wars. Whereas fierce public debates once centered on provocative work by upstart artists, the scrutiny has now expanded to mainstream cultural institutions and the ideas they present. In Displays of Power, Steven Dubin, whose Arresting Images was deemed "masterly" by the New York Times, examines the most controversial exhibitions of the 1990s. These include shows about ethnicity, slavery, Freud, the Old West, and the dropping of the atomic bomb by the Enola Gay. This new edition also includes a preface by the author detailing the recent Sensation! controversy at the Brooklyn Museum. Displays of Power draws directly upon interviews with many key combatants: museum administrators, community activists, curators, and scholars. It authoritatively analyzes these episodes of America struggling to redefine itself in the late 20th century.

Drawing upon extensive interviews, a broad sampling of media accounts, legal documents, and his own observations of important events, Steven Dubin surveys the censorship issues surrounding visual art, photography, and film, as well as artistic upstarts such as video and performance art. He examines both the nature of art work which disarms its viewers and the social reaction to it - the dual meaning of arresting images. Combining the eye of an aesthete and the rigour of a social scientist, Dubin offers insights into contemporary society and politics.