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| Book Review | Indiana Magazine of History, 104.1 | The History Cooperative
104.1  
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March, 2008
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Reviews

The New Town Square
Museums and Communities in Transition

By Robert R. Archibald
(Walnut Creek, Calif.: AltaMira Press, 2004. Pp. viii, 224. Illustrations, index. Paperbound, $24.95.)

Robert Archibald is well-known in his role as president of the Missouri Historical Society as well as for his prior book, A Place to Remember: Using History to Build Community (1999). The New Town Square is an edited compendium of Archibald's lectures and radio pieces on the interrelated themes of change, community, and memory. Specifically, Archibald meditates on the ways in which America's changing communities, where suburban sprawl has replaced the town square, erase the memories and the places that hold individuals together. 1
      Archibald begins the book with a discussion of the importance of place in human life. He explores how narratives embedded in place give meaning to artifacts, creating communal history as well as establishing a connection between localities and their museums. In fact, one of the best features of the text is the evocation of spaces from Archibald's own past—especially Ishpeming on Michigan's Upper Peninsula, rural areas of Montana, and urban neighborhoods of St. Louis. The images in these passages bolster Archibald's argument for stewardship of the land as part of historic preservation. . . .
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