Righting America at the Creation Museum

A multidimensional approach to the topic of the Creation Museum, this superb book combines ethnography with discursive forays into history and theory in an attempt to understand an important cultural phenomenon. The authors deftly move from description to historical vignettes to theory as they seek to explain the museum. -- Randall Balmer, Dartmouth College, author of Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory: A Journey into the Evangelical Subculture in America This carefully researched, engagingly written book takes readers on a virtual tour of the Creation Museum, the first of its kind. This book is, to my knowledge, also the first of its kind. No one else has devoted such meticulous attention to the messages of the museum or done so in such a lucid, even-handed manner. -- Ronald L. Numbers, University of Wisconsin-Madison, author of The Creationists: From Scientific Creationism to Intelligent Design

This compelling book reveals that the Creation Museum is a remarkably complex phenomenon, at once a "natural history" museum at odds with contemporary science, an extended brief for the Bible as the literally true and errorless word of God, and a powerful and unflinching argument on behalf of the Christian right.On May 28, 2007, the Creation Museum opened in Petersburg, Kentucky. Aimed at scientifically demonstrating that the universe was created less than ten thousand years ago by a Judeo-Christian god, the museum is hugely popular, attracting millions of visitors over the past eight years. Surrounded by themed topiary gardens and a petting zoo with camel rides, the site conjures up images of a religious Disneyland. Inside, visitors are met by dinosaurs at every turn and by a replica of the Garden of Eden that features the Tree of Life, the serpent, and Adam and Eve. In Righting America at the Creation Museum, Susan L. Trollinger and William Vance Trollinger, Jr., take readers on a fascinating tour of the museum. The Trollingers vividly describe and analyze its vast array of exhibits, placards, dioramas, and videos, from the Culture in Crisis Room, where videos depict sinful characters watching pornography or considering abortion, to the Natural Selection Room, where placards argue that natural selection doesn't lead to evolution. The book also traces the rise of creationism and the history of fundamentalism in America. This compelling book reveals that the Creation Museum is a remarkably complex phenomenon, at once a "natural history" museum at odds with contemporary science, an extended brief for the Bible as the literally true and errorless word of God, and a powerful and unflinching argument on behalf of the Christian right.