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Tourists of History: Memory, Kitsch, and Consumerism from Oklahoma City to Ground Zero
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Tourists of History: Memory, Kitsch, and Consumerism from Oklahoma City to Ground Zero
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by Marita Sturken
Sales Rank : 70626
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Paperback: 344 pages
Publisher: Duke University Press October 2007
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0822341220
ISBN-13: 978-0822341222
Product Dimensions:
9.2 x 6.1 x 0.9 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
Product Review
"Readers will be fascinated by the social and political commentary buried in Sturken's appraisal of kitsch. A thought-provoking work; highly recommended." -- Theresa Kintz, Library Journal
"Sturken urges attention be paid to a dangerous confluence of memory, tourism, consumerism, paranoia, security, and kitsch . . . ." -- John F. Barber, Leonardo
"[Sturken's] book is original and powerfully insightful, and comes strongly recommended to readers of cultural studies and public history." -- Adam Dodd, M/C Reviews
"[T]here is some insightful work here . . . and many of the narratives and relations Sturken critiques and analyzes throughout her book are indeed unhealthy ones. . . ." -- Ryan Gillespie, Popmatters
Product Description
In Tourists of History, the cultural critic Marita Sturken argues that over the past two decades, Americans have responded to national trauma through consumerism, kitsch sentiment, and tourist practices in ways that reveal a tenacious investment in the idea of America’s innocence. Sturken investigates the consumerism that followed from the September 11th attacks; the contentious, ongoing debates about memorials and celebrity-architect designed buildings at Ground Zero; and two outcomes of the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City: the Oklahoma City National Memorial and the execution of Timothy McVeigh.
Sturken contends that a consumer culture of comfort objects such as World Trade Center snow globes, FDNY teddy bears, and Oklahoma City Memorial t-shirts and branded water, as well as reenactments of traumatic events in memorial and architectural designs, enables a national tendency to see U.S. culture as distant from both history and world politics. A kitsch comfort culture contributes to a “tourist” relationship to history: Americans can feel good about visiting and buying souvenirs at sites of national mourning without having to engage with the economic, social, and political causes of the violent events. While arguing for the importance of remembering tragic losses of life, Sturken is urging attention to a dangerous confluence—of memory, tourism, consumerism, paranoia, security, and kitsch—that promulgates fear to sell safety, offers prepackaged emotion at the expense of critical thought, contains alternative politics, and facilitates public acquiescence in the federal government’s repressive measures at home and its aggressive political and military policies abroad.
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