Book Review

Destination Culture is a collection of eight essays written by Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, professor of performance studies and of Hebrew and Judaic studies at New York University. Each was either published or presented by Kirshenblatt-Gimblett at a conference or symposium between 1988 and 1995. The author tells us that each of her essays is informed by "my ongoing concern with vernacular culture and the aesthetics of everyday life, both lived and exhibited." Overall, Destination Culture is a romp through the places in which American culture is put on display and interpreted. The book is occasionally a difficult read, lapsing once in a while into academese, but it is often funny and critical of such American icons as Plimoth Plantation and Ellis Island. It is always thought-provoking. The places we usually think of as purveyors of history in some fashion are discussed—museums, tourist attractions, and historical re-creations, but festivals, expositions, and world's fairs are also included. And no artifact or subject is too vernacular. The final essay attacks the notion of bad taste and the suggestion that culture exists only among the well heeled and well bred.

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