Presidential libraries as performance : curating American character from Herbert Hoover to George W. Bush / Jodi Kanter.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Kanter, Jodi, 1970- author.

Series:

Theater in the Americas

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Presidential libraries--United States.

Presidential libraries.

Presidents--United States--History--20th century--Exhibitions.

Presidents.

Character--Political aspects--United States.

Character.

National characteristics, American.

Performative (Philosophy).

History.

United States.

Genre:

Exhibition catalogs.

Physical Description:

xi, 179 pages ; 24 cm.

Other Title:

Curating American character from Herbert Hoover to George W. Bush

Place of Publication:

Carbondale : Southern Illinois University Press, [2016]

Summary:

How do the funding, setting, architecture, and exhibition of a presidential library shape our understanding of the president's character? And how do diverse performances of the presidency create radically different opportunities for the practice of American citizenship? In Presidential Libraries as Performance: Curating American Character from Herbert Hoover to George W. Bush, Jodi Kanter analyzes presidential libraries as performances that encourage visitors to think in particular ways about executive leadership and about their own roles in public life. Kanter demonstrates how the presidential libraries generate normative narratives about individual presidents, historical events, and what it means to be an American. Book jacket.

Contents:

The presidential libraries at a glance

Introduction: Locating American character at the presidential libraries

Museum funding, visitor participation and presidential character

Character in play: Performance authority at the presidential library

Interlude: Senator Richard Russell reflects on the many characters of Lyndon Johnson

Character in motion: Visitor performance

Individualism and American character

Character forever: Yearning for immortality

Interlude: A legacy in song

Graham Jackson brings Roosevelt home

Utopian character: The role of the imaginary

Interlude: Origins on display

Gerald Ford encounters his father

Disruption, inspiration, and the American community

Character interrupted: efficiency and disruption

Interlude: Ivaniz Silva remembers saying goodbye to the Bushes

Performing the American community

Coda: Character 2.0

Reinventing the presidential library.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780809335206

0809335204

OCLC:

926062160