The Monumental Challenge of Preservation: The Past in a Volatile World

Cloonan, Michele Valerie

ISBN 10: 0262037734 / ISBN 13: 9780262037730

Published by The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2018

About this Item

Signed by the author on the title page. Publisher's full black cloth, white lettering on spine. Illustrated with numerous B&W photographs. Includes extensive Notes, Bibliography, and Index. The enormous task of preserving the world's heritage in the face of war, natural disaster, vandalism, neglect, and technical obsolescence.The monuments-movable, immovable, tangible, and intangible-of the world's shared cultural heritage are at risk. War, terrorism, natural disaster, vandalism, and neglect make the work of preservation a greater challenge than it has been since World War II. Cloonan makes the case that, at this critical juncture, we must consider preservation in the broadest possible contexts. Preservation requires the efforts of an increasing number of stakeholders.In order to explore the cultural, political, technological, economic, and ethical dimensions of preservation, Cloonan examines particular monuments and their preservation dilemmas. The massive Bamiyan Buddhas, blown up by the Taliban in 2001, are still the subject of debates over how, or whether, to preserve what remains, and the US National Park Service has undertaken the complex task of preserving the symbolic and often ephemeral objects that visitors leave at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial-to take just two of the many examples described in the book. Cloonan also considers the ongoing genocide and cultural genocide in Syria; the challenges of preserving our digital heritage; the dynamic between original and copy; efforts to preserve the papers and architectural fragments of the architect Louis Sullivan; and the possibility of sustainable preservation. In the end, Cloonan suggests, we are what we preserve-and don't preserve. Every day we make preservation decisions, individually and collectively, that have longer-term ramifications than we might expect. Both the volume and the unclipped dust jacket are in perfect, pristine condition; unread, unmarked, tight, square, and clean. NEW/NEW. B&W Photographs. 8vo 8" - 9" tall. 280 pp. Signed by Author.

Seller Inventory # 27372

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Monumental Challenge of Preservation: The Past in a Volatile World
• Publisher: The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA
• Publication Date: 2018
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0262037734
• ISBN 13: 9780262037730
• Binding: Hard Cover
• Edition: First Printing.
• Condition: New
• Dust Jacket Condition: New
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)
• Seller catalogs:
  • Art, Antiques & Photography
  • Philosophy & Social Sciences
  • History

About this title

Synopsis

The enormous task of preserving the world's heritage in the face of war, natural disaster, vandalism, neglect, and technical obsolescence.

The monuments—movable, immovable, tangible, and intangible—of the world's shared cultural heritage are at risk. War, terrorism, natural disaster, vandalism, and neglect make the work of preservation a greater challenge than it has been since World War II. In The Monumental Challenge of Preservation Michèle Cloonan makes the case that, at this critical juncture, we must consider preservation in the broadest possible contexts. Preservation requires the efforts of an increasing number of stakeholders.

In order to explore the cultural, political, technological, economic, and ethical dimensions of preservation, Cloonan examines particular monuments and their preservation dilemmas. The massive Bamiyan Buddhas, blown up by the Taliban in 2001, are still the subject of debates over how, or whether, to preserve what remains, and the U. S. National Park Service has undertaken the complex task of preserving the symbolic and often ephemeral objects that visitors leave at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial—to take just two of the many examples described in the book. Cloonan also considers the ongoing genocide and cultural genocide in Syria; the challenges of preserving our digital heritage; the dynamic between original and copy; efforts to preserve the papers and architectural fragments of the architect Louis Sullivan; and the possibility of sustainable preservation. In the end, Cloonan suggests, we are what we preserve—and don't preserve. Every day we make preservation decisions, individually and collectively, that have longer-term ramifications than we might expect.

About the Author

Michèle Valerie Cloonan is Professor in the School of Library and Information Science and Dean Emerita of the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at Simmons College.