The Ethics of Sightseeing

"This is quintessential MacCannell. It is quirky, brilliant, profound, and thought provoking. There are new insights on almost every page. A great read."

—Edward Bruner, author of Culture on Tour: Ethnographies of Travel



"This is an extraordinary, engaging, and provocative work by one of the distinctive leaders in what has become a lively intellectual field. It also speaks to much broader questions about culture, economy, social life, and experience than the touristic – this is powerful social theory in transit."

—Don Brenneis, co-editor of Law and Empire in the Pacific



“The Ethics of Sightseeing is vintage MacCannell. It draws together topics—some of which have already appeared as separate papers—in an analytical whole in the same way he did in his original 1976 book The Tourist. And like The Tourist, this book is full of brilliant insights drawn from personal experiences, anecdotes, and a wide knowledge of the humanistic and social science literature. It is eye-opening and pushes the boundaries of knowledge and disciplines. It will go well beyond academic and classroom audiences in providing a new twist to cultural studies interpretations of modern society.”

—Nelson Graburn, co-editor of Multiculturalism in the New Japan