Heritage

A History of How We Conserve Our Past

James Stourton

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Hardback

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English

Head of Zeus
28 February 2023

History of Art & Design Styles; Museums & museology; History; British & Irish history; Social & cultural history; Conservation of the environment

What is heritage? When was it invented? What is its place in the world today? What is its place tomorrow?

Heritage is all around us: millions belong to its organisations, tens of thousands volunteer for it, and politicians pay lip service to it. When the Victorians began to employ the term in something approaching the modern sense, they applied it to cathedrals, castles, villages and certain landscapes. Since then a multiplicity of heritage labels have arisen, cultural and commercial, tangible and intangible – for just as every era has its notion of heritage, so does every social group, and every generation.

In Heritage, James Stourton focuses on elements of our cultural and natural environment that have been deliberately preserved: the British countryside and national parks, buildings such as Blenheim Palace and Tattershall Castle, and the works of art inside them. He charts two heroic periods of conservation – the 1880s and the 1960s – and considers whether threats of wealth, rampant development and complacency are similar in the present day. Heritage is both a story of crisis and profound change in public perception, and one of hope and regeneration.

By: James Stourton
Imprint: Head of Zeus
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 156mm,
ISBN: 9781838933166
ISBN 10: 1838933166
Pages: 496
Publication Date: 28 February 2023
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

James Stourton is a British art historian, a former Chairman of Sotheby's UK and the author of Great Houses of London, British Embassies, and the authorized biography of Kenneth Clark. Stourton frequently lectures to Cambridge University History of Art Faculty, Sotheby's Institute of Education and The Art Fund, and is a senior fellow of the Institute of Historical Research. He also sits on the Heritage Memorial Fund, a government panel which meets to decide what constitutes heritage and should be saved for the nation.

Reviews for Heritage: A History of How We Conserve Our Past

PRAISE FOR JAMES STOURTON: 'An accomplished book that is scholarly, entertaining, beautifully written and sympathetic, while far from uncritical' The Times. 'Richly detailed, colourful and astute and it moves at a cracking pace ... A resplendent biography' The Sunday Times. 'The deft weaving of architectural, social and contemporary history will reveal unexpected pleasures' Art Quarterly. 'This lavishly illustrated compendium suggests that the age of elegance endures' Mail on Sunday. 'Wonderfully learned, gossipy and instructive ... The historical research is formidable ... Witty, informative and endlessly fascinating' * Literary Review *