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Dark Tourism: The Attraction of Death and Disaster
Dark Tourism: The Attraction of Death and Disaster
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Wayne W. Smith
College of Charleston
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during World War II into a positive framework. The lack of discussion of the
impacts of geography, media interest (there were no movies made about the
Channel Islands), and sociological changes in the communities around the
two sites in influencing how the two sites are interpreted is a missed opport-
unity.
Chapter six discusses the Kennedy assassination and the sites commemorat-
ing it. It contends that the assassination and the US preoccupation with JFK
is largely media-based. The description of JFK in the book as a television
president is as true in his death as it was in his life. Certain televised images
are firmly embedded in peoples minds even if they were not alive at the time
of the assassination, thanks to the ongoing media preoccupation with JFK.
The discussion builds on these thoughts by describing how media images are
used at the memorial sites to evoke the emotions and to enable a greater
understanding of the historical context in which the Kennedy assassination
took place. This chapter also compares the memorial sites dedicated to the
memory of JFK. It creates a matrix that compares sites in terms of pro-
duction (celebration of Kennedys achievements) and consumption
(reverence of his memory expressed through tourists behavior). The matrix
offers some useful insights into the different ways dark tourism sites are
developed.
Chapter seven looks at World War I and II battlefields. There is a frank
discussion of Pearl Harbor and the US Park Services philosophy towards visi-
tation to the USS Arizona sites. In particular, the internal discussions by the
Park Service whether or not blame for the attack should be placed during
interpretive sessions is illuminating. Eventually, education won out over emo-
tion. The powerful messages that are portrayed at the commemorative site
have been carefully crafted to avoid stirring feelings of anger. The chapter
also discusses war sites in the United Kingdom, Germany, France, and
Belgium. One particularly useful aspect of this chapter is a discussion of the
development of motor coach tours for veterans and historians.
Overall, this book would be suitable for a third or fourth year university
issues course. Despite thin coverage of certain issues, the book challenges the
reader to think about how tourism development is shaped by political, media,
and sociological forces, and about how societys understanding of the signifi-
cance of certain tourism sites is also shaped by those forces. The authors pos-
ition themselves as defenders of historical truth and against the commodifi-
cation of dark tourism sites. This position opens the possibility of debate
about whether publicly designating any site as a commemorative one inevitably
turns it into a commodity. This book is a valuable resource and reference
for the concept of dark tourism. The descriptions of the sites covered are
provocative and powerful. The authors also remember to set their discussions
in the context of the local communities that act as hosts to those drawn by
the darker side of human history. They have revealed dark tourism to be a
significant topic on which more research is needed to cast light. A
PII: S0160-7383(02)00015-4