Argues that municipal museums had a further, social role. In a situation of rapid urban growth, allied to social and cultural changes on a scale hitherto unknown, it was inevitable that traditional class and social hierarchies would come under enormous pressure. '...[Hill's] insights about museums as sites for class formation and the muted role of museums in social control are overdue, and the book will be welcomed by museums studies courses in particular as filling an important gap in the literature.' Journal of Victorian Culture 'This is an engaging and timely book which looks at municipal and not national, English museums in the age of their most intense development, after the series of mid-nineteenth century Parliamentary Acts which allowed town councils to establish museums and to levy rates to do so. ...this is a sophisticated and persuasive book, which I imagine will form an important reference point for scholars working in similar areas. It surveys relatively new territory well and forms a very worthwhile contribution to the literature on museum history as well as to the debates about museum historiography.' Museum and Society