Liz's history and heritage stuff

“Benedict Anderson suggests that nations are ‘imagined communities’. Heritage is one of a series of tools used by the nation-state to emphasise a shared national identity. It is thus considered a key part of nation building. It is paradoxically the relative ‘newness’ of nations which means that they must appeal to a strong sense of tradition and heritage to form a sense of collective past among their members.
But note that to be successful in building a nation requires the exclusion of non-conforming groups and other ‘nations’ that might also lay claim to the state under question.
It is in this regard that the role of heritage in nation building can be seen to be contentious and the source of unequal power relationships.”

- AD281-09J: Study Guide: Week 7: 1 Course book

History and heritage tweets 'curated' by Liz

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 21:29:01 +0000

History and heritage tweets 'curated' by Liz

Planning proposals for heritage buildings to be re-written after outcry - Telegraph

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 21:01:23 +0000

Planning proposals for heritage buildings to be re-written after outcry - Telegraph

"Perhaps the most sophisticated attempt to locate the complex mix of developments which went under..."

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 20:57:42 +0000

“Perhaps the most sophisticated attempt to locate the complex mix of developments which went under the name of heritage came from the French historian Pierre Nora. In an ambitious project, Nora and a host of historians under his command set out to chart the history of memory in the modern French nation. In coming to his own, contemporary, period Nora found public memory colonized by what he termed les lieux de memoire – the realms or places of memory (Nora, 1984–93). Contrary to appearances, these realms of memory, far from allowing access to the historical past, obstructed historical thought: rather like heritage in the Anglophone literature, in the lC20, for Nora, les lieux de memoire promised much but delivered little, alluding to a past that could never be grasped, known, or experienced. In a contrary conceptual move, the English historian Raphael Samuel, tired of intellectuals exhibiting a characteristic snobbishness about the popular pleasures organized by the heritage industries, embarked upon an ambitious study in which he determined to demonstrate that heritage, far from being destructive of historical consciousness, worked as a great impetus for the arrival of a new form of historical knowledge. These controversies currently underwrite the entire governance or administration of the-past-in-the-present – be it among museum curators, or in the decisions to designate world heritage sites, or in local struggles to preserve a neighborhood artifact.”

- From : Heritage in Bennett, T., Grossberg, L. and Morris, M. (eds) (2005) New Keywords: A Revised Vocabulary of Culture and Society, Malden, MA and Oxford, Blackwell Publishing, pp. 154–6.

BBC NEWS | England | Museum 'wants hoard in Midlands'

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 17:50:30 +0000

BBC NEWS | England | Museum 'wants hoard in Midlands'

Protecting our nation's war memorials - Corporate - Communities and Local Government

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 09:30:59 +0000

Protecting our nation's war memorials - Corporate - Communities and Local Government

The Heritage Bill parliamentary discussion TUESDAY 20 OCTOBER 2009

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 16:00:16 +0000

The Heritage Bill parliamentary discussion TUESDAY 20 OCTOBER 2009:

Talking about the proposed Heritage Bill

“do not foresee any Heritage Bill being produced in the House this side of the general election”

Returning soldiers: what can we learn from history? | BBC History Magazine

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 21:01:52 +0000

Returning soldiers: what can we learn from history? | BBC History Magazine

Animated stereoviews of old Japan ::: Pink Tentacle

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 18:58:24 +0000

Animated stereoviews of old Japan ::: Pink Tentacle:

fascinating (especially for old Japan heads like me)

A crisis too big to waste by Simon Shama for CABE

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 18:28:59 +0000

A crisis too big to waste by Simon Shama for CABE:

It’s my deep, instinctive belief that all children are wired for memory and narrative. Children want to be part of buildings that talk about where they have come from. They want to walk and live in those kind of places. And take their own children to them.

Faded London

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 16:14:31 +0000

Faded London:

A blog celebrating (mainly South) London street furniture from times past

Forty years of the internet: how the world changed for ever | Technology | The Guardian

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 13:44:16 +0100

Forty years of the internet: how the world changed for ever | Technology | The Guardian

The Watch | World Monuments Fund

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 22:06:05 +0100

The Watch | World Monuments Fund