Giving Preservation a History: Histories of Historic Preservation in the United States - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0415934435 ISBN 13: 9780415934435

Publisher: Routledge, 2003

Synopsis

In this volume, some of the best figures in the field have come together to write on preservation movements across the country, from New York to Atlanta to Santa Fe and others. Giving Preservation a History also touches on the European roots of the historic preservation movement; on how preservation movements have taken a leading role in shaping American urban space and urban development; how historic preservation battles have reflected broader social forces; and what the changing nature of historic preservation means for the effort to preserve the nation's past.

About this title

About the Author:

Max Page is an Associate Professor of Architecture and History at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and a 2003 Guggenheim Fellow. He is the author of The Creative Destruction of Manhattan, 1900-1940 (University of Chicago Press, 1999), and co-author with Steven Conn of Building the Nation: Americans Write About Their Architecture, Their Cities, and Their Landscape (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2003). Randall Mason is an Assistant Professor in the Planning School and the Director of the Graduate Program in Preservation at the University of Maryland.

Review:

This feisty, necessary, and useful book is like a visit to Williamsburg conducted jointly by Saul Alinsky and Carroll Meeks. Only better, because its essays represent points of view all along the intervening spectrum, but have in common a desire for the information offered to incite a beneficial outcome. This is no weary recital of preservation lore, but a call to consider an informed action. No one should accept trusteeship of the National Trust, or a local land trust, or a superintendency of a national or state park without a copy of this book in their kitbag. The writing is all good, and in some cases, such as the authors' introduction, eloquent.

About this edition

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0415934435
• ISBN 13: 9780415934435
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 352
• Editor: Mason Randall F., Page Max