Stanton (Tufts U. and Vermont College of Union Institute and U.) theorizes public history as a form of cultural performance through examining the efforts of Lowell, Massachusetts to reinvent itself as a postindustrial site of cultural knowledge by establishing the Lowell National Historical Park as a means of looking back on its ethnic and working class past. She first situates the development of the park in the context the public history movement. Then she describes three walking tours in the park at considers how the patterns of choices and omission is ultimately shaped by the park's role in reinventing the city's identity, a process that serves to limit critical discourse about Lowell's past and present history. Annotation ©2007 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)