Living History Museums: Undoing History Through Performance examines the performance techniques of Living History Museums, cultural institutions that merge historical exhibits with costumed live performance. Institutions such as Plimoth Plantation and Colonial Williamsburg are analyzed from a theatrical perspective, offering a new genealogy of living museum performance.

Hillary Rodham Clinton tells her life story, describing her dedication to social causes, her relationship with her husband, and her accomplishments and difficult periods as First Lady.

As the director of Barton Farm, a living history museum, Kelsey Cambridge is underpaid and underappreciated, but she loves every minute of it. Determined to keep the struggling museum open, she plans to impress Barton Farm's wealthy benefactress, Cynthia Cherry, with a Civil War reenactment on the farm's grounds. Unfortunately, the first shot in the battle isn't from a period soldier. It's from Cynthia's greedy nephew, Maxwell, who fires a threat at Kelsey to cut the museum's funding. The next morning, things go from bad to worse when Kelsey discovers Maxwell dead. Now Kelsey is the number one suspect, and she must start her own investigation to save Barton Farm...and herself. Praise: "History and Civil War buffs will enjoy the historical details woven through the mystery, and Kelsey and the secondary characters are well drawn and sympathetic. This one will appeal to readers who enjoy contemporary cozies with a history frame."—Booklist "Very well written...with great characterization, history, plot, and humor galore. A definite 5-star."—Suspense Magazine "Flower combines a plethora of suspects, a soupçon of history, and a dash of romance."—Kirkus Reviews "Flower peppers [The Final Reveille] with enough historical detail and snarky one-liners to make readers intrigued to see what she'll do next."—Library Journal "A thoroughly enjoyable mystery with history, humor, and heart!"—Krista Davis, New York Times bestselling author of The Domestic Diva Mystery Series "A spunky heroine in a fast-paced mystery...what a fun book to read!"—Mary Ellis, author of The Civil War Heroines Series

Living history museums are cultural institutions that merge historical exhibits with live costumed performance. While unique and vitally important, they often compromise historical accuracy and authenticity for the sake of tourism and entertainment value. Many also pursue methods of performance and historiography that are becoming increasingly outdated. Living History Museums: Undoing History Through Performance examines the performance practices used by institutions such as Plimoth Plantation and Colonial Williamsburg, and offers a new genealogy of living history museum performance in the U.S. and Europe. Currently, existing scholarship on living history museums addresses the subject from a museum-studies or anthropology perspective. Author Scott Magelssen, however, approaches the material from a background in theatre history and theory, analyzing living history museums using postmodern methodology. Considering performance as a method for the study of history and exploring emergent non-traditional theatrical practices, the book offers suggestions for performance in an increasingly postmodern landscape. Concluding with an international listing of living history institutions and a complete list of sources, Living History Museums is a valuable resource for students and teachers of theatre and performance studies, cultural studies, folklore, popular culture, American studies, and museum studies.

Living History Reader is the first collection of seminal articles about conducting living history. Written by museum interpreters and enthusiasts, the articles are thought-provoking, readable, and collectively present a cross-section of the best writing about historical simulation.

Teaching History with Museums provides an introduction and overview of the rich pedagogical power of museums. In this comprehensive textbook, the authors show how museums offer a sophisticated understanding of the past and develop habits of mind in ways that are not easily duplicated in the classroom. Using engaging cases to illustrate accomplished history teaching through museum visits, this text provides pre- and in-service teachers, teacher educators, and museum educators with ideas for successful visits to artifact and display-based museums, historic forts, living history museums, memorials, monuments, and other heritage sites. Each case is constructed to be adapted and tailored in ways that will be applicable to any classroom and encourage students to think deeply about museums as historical accounts and interpretations to be examined, questioned, and discussed.

In the 1960s, Canadians could step through time to eighteenth-century trading posts or nineteenth-century pioneer towns. These living history museums promised authentic reconstructions of the past but, as Time Travel shows, they revealed more about mid-twentieth-century interests and perceptions of history than they reflected historical fact. An appetite for commercial tourism led to the rise of living history museums. They became important components of economic growth, especially as part of government policy to promote regional economic diversity and employment. Alan Gordon explores how these museums were shaped by post-war pressures, personality conflicts, funding challenges, and the need to balance education and entertainment. Ultimately, the rise of the living history museum is linked to the struggle to establish a pan-Canadian identity in the context of multiculturalism, competing anglophone and francophone nationalisms, First Nations resistance, and the growth of the state.