The Museum of Other People

Launched in the 1840s to showcase 'other' ways of life, museums are in crisis. Activists demand the return of treasures seized in imperial campaigns. Curators are cast into a cauldron of controversy about race, colonialism, cultural appropriation and scientific authority.

Is the Museum of Other People viable in the twenty-first century? What is to be done with all those Ancient Egyptian mummies, Benin Bronzes, Kwakiutl totems and Australian boomerangs?

Drawing on a lifetime of research, Adam Kuper traces the fascinating, complex, sometimes disturbing history of ethnographic collections and makes the case for a cosmopolitan museum: one that values expertise, respects local knowledge and fosters international connections.