Beyond the Glass Case
Nick Merriman

ISBN: 0-905853-37-7 • 2000 • $37.50 • Paper

Two connected issues of pressing intellectual and practical importance are addressed in this book: what does the past mean to the general public and why do certain social groups exclude themselves from institutions, like museums, which explain the past and connect it to the present?

Central to the book's answers to these questions is a nationwide survey in the UK that measured public use of and attitudes to the past, archaeology and collecting. The author reviews this research in the light of contemporary theory on ideology and representation and goes on to develop a convincing explanation for the failure of museums and similar institutions to connect with the majority of the public.

Finally he marshals the empirical and theoretical work to make a powerful case for a new approach to attract the outsiders, one which encourages a view of the museum as a service helping its public to see, understand and engage with its own personal, local and multi-faceted past.