In her book The Power of Place: Urban Landscapes as Public History Dolores Hayden looks at public history in general and specifically at the public history projects done by her organization, The Power of Place, in Los Angeles. As she points out in the first section the vast majority of public history displays in the United States were built to commemorate the white, male politicians and generals who “built” the nation. Hayden argues that we need to create public history displays that remember the people, the butchers, bakers, candlestick makers, tinkers, and tailors male and female and of every color who, in reality, built the nation. Preservation efforts, another focus of public history, have primarily targeted mansions and architecturally unique buildings at the expense of buildings that were found everywhere and housed the vast majority of citizens and their workplaces.

To broaden our public memory Hayden and her group worked on a variety of projects. They attempted to acquire historical designation for an early Japanese flower market, worked on turning an abandoned firehouse into a museum, and they built and installed public displays remembering the contributions of individuals and communities. Not all their projects were successful. The market’s owners refused to cooperate fearing economic loss. The firehouse burned before the project was completed. Even the failed projects required a wide array of talents.

Hayden discusses all of the people whose skills are needed on these projects and the book is amply illustrated with images of successful projects. Her accounts of the successes as well the failures make this book a required read for anyone contemplating a public history project. She provides a wealth of ideas and strategies to aid in creating a project and bringing it to completion. The best lines in the book are quotes she has chosen to illustrate a point but her writing is very straightforward and readable. I recommend this book to anyone interested in museums and public history, because I first learned about this book from a reading list in the University of Massachusetts at Amherst’s Public History graduate program I am confident that I am not the only one who thinks well of it. ( )