Constructing Sites of Memory

This book explores what geographical sites as places of memory can communicate that is substantially different to that available in other forms, such as books, video, and the internet. With a series of chapters analysing a separate memory project relating to slavery, the Cold War and political persecution, the author examines a series of Lieux de Mémoire as three-dimensional places upon which a certain kind of cultural ritual is enacted, and in which a 'spirit of the site' is experienced that makes people feel that they share past experiences; as if being in the same space once inhabited by others can, to an extent, collapse time and provide direct access to history.

Paul Williams is Senior Content Developer at Ralph Appelbaum Associates in New York where he organises planning and strategic development for national and internation museum and heritage clients. Prior to this he was Professor of Museum Studies at New York University, USA. He is the author of Memorial Museums: The Global Rush to Commemorate Atrocities (Oxford & New York: Berg, 2007).