Negative Positive
Title: Too Many Tangents, Not Enough Evidence
Review: The main problem with Domesticating History is that it claims to show that the historic houses "reflect less the lives and times of their famous inhabitants than the political pressures of the eras during whih they transformed in museums" -- but then barely discusses the museums themselves and the messages they conveyed. We get a lot of detail about the other political efforts of the people who tried to found these museums, but we have no way of knowing to what extent those other political beliefs manifested themselves in what visitors saw, because we never really learn *what* they saw. That many of the organizations that sprouted up to restore and maintain these homes had deep ideological divisions makes this omission even more glaring, because the reader has no way of knowing which agenda, if any, eventually won out. There is interesting and informative material here, but what argument there is, is poorly presented.
Is the review positive or negative? 