Social history in museums: a handbook for professionals - Tapa dura

This manual contains contributions by 30 museum professionals from a wide range of specialisms with chapters that range from "The Decorative Art Approach" to "The Agricultural History Approach" to "Oral History", "Excavation Archaeology", "Photographs and Films" and "Period Rooms". The discipline of social history is, in academic terms, very young and its introduction into museums is a recent phenomenon. While both these factors lie behind the contributions to this volume and "definitions are fluid, controversy rife", confidence is nonetheless high. The wealth of material reflects the growth in the museum movement since the 1940s and the concern of curators to ensure that museums are popular and relevant in their communities.