Displays of Power

Steven C. Dubin’s Displays of Power details the struggles and conflicts that emerge for museums in the creation of exhibits. One section describes the remainder of the book and Dubin’s reason for writing. He states that it would be easier if there was a clear cut hero and villain, yet he cites the difficulties with representing anything to completely please everyone. Basically, his purpose for writing is not to show the difficulties of creating an exhibit but examples of issues that arise once an exhibit is completed. Throughout this book, one also gets the view of the changes that occurred in museums such as the Met and others during these time periods and how they changed into forums for discussion, protest, and individual opinions from previous positions as temples.
Dubin describes through each chapter the controversies that arose in connection to exhibits such as Harlem on my Mind, the Gaelic Gotham, the Freud exhibit, The West as America, and the Enola Gay. He shows how shared inquiry and the forum set up can lead to controversies over everything from the name of the exhibit, to accusations of racism, to debates over proper representation. It also shows how the media can play a part in the debate and the furthering of controversy. Dubin succeeds in portraying his argument and his thesis through several examples of exhibits that faced controversy in the 1990s. He centralizes his argument around the emergence of exhibits that directly led to controversy through American cultural and historical subjects.
While not always discussing the entirety of the historical aspect of the exhibition, he does show the different sides that surrounded each event to show how there really is no easy way to pinpoint a hero or a villain in a story, because portraying one side of a story positively can negatively represent others, such as in Harlem on my Mind when they tried to show how within Harlem at this time the Jewish population controlled many upper level job positions. This portrayed the Jewish population in a negative light, which sent the Jewish community into a choir of protests. He shows how arguments can surround a subject from all sides.
The basic sense that emerges from Dubin’s work was that sometimes even the best of intentions can have the worst outcomes. These exhibits, each in their own way, attempted to show a new aspect of American society. The response to each of these was not the most positive, but it does show a truth behind the process that in today’s world, everyone feels they should have and deserve shared authority for representations of history through museums and their displays. Dubin attempts to show the debates in a circular fashion, by looking at not only the time but the issues from all sides. The book shows another side of the museum process, it was not as strong of writing as the Linenthal book, but he does show how not only the creation can be controversial but the result also.