Defining Memory uses case studies of exhibits from around the country to examine how local museums, defined as museums whose collections are local in scope or whose audiences are primarily local, have both shaped and been shaped by evolving community values and sense of history. Levin and her contributors argue that these small institutions play a key role in defining America's self-identity and should be studied as seriously as more national institutions like the Smithsonian and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Defining Memory uses case studies of exhibits from around the country to examine how local museums, defined as museums whose collections are local in scope or whose audiences are primarily local, have both shaped and been shaped by evolving community values and sense of history. Levin and her contributors argue that these small institutions play a key role in defining America's self-identity and should be studied as seriously as more national institutions like the Smithsonian and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Chapter 1 Acknowledgements
Chapter 2 Foreword
Part 3 I. Frameworks
Chapter 4 1. Why Local Museums Matter
Chapter 5 2. Local History, "Old Things to Look At," and a Sculptor's Vision: Exploring Local Museums through Curriculum Theory
Part 6 II. The Rebirth of a Nation
Chapter 7 3. Public History, Private Memory: Notes from the Ethnography of Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia, USA
Chapter 8 4. The House of Seven Gables: A House Museum's Adaptation to Changing Societal Expectations since 1910
Chapter 9 5. Louisiana's Old State Capitol Museum: Castle on the Mississippi
Part 10 III. Nostalgia as Epistemology
Chapter 11 6. The Small Town We Never Were: Old Cowtown Museum Faces an Urban Past
Chapter 12 7. Democratic Nostalgia: Arthurdale, West Virginia, as a 'Living Museum'
Chapter 13 8. History Lessons: Selling the John Dillinger Museum
Part 14 IV. Museums at Risk
Chapter 15 9. Dickson Mounds Museum: Conflict and Resolution
Chapter 16 10. 'Such is Our Heritage:' Daughters of Utah Pioneers Museums
Chapter 17 11. Curating America's Army Medical Museum
Part 18 V. Challenging the Major Museum
Chapter 19 12. Objects of Dis/order: Articulating Curiosities and Engaging People at the Freakatorium
Chapter 20 13. Cities, Museums, and City Museums
Part 21 VI. No Business Like Show Business
Chapter 22 14. Business as Usual: Can Museums be Bought?
Chapter 23 15. Conclusion: Museums and the American Imagination
Chapter 24 Selected Bibliography