Ebook: The monumental challenge of preservation: the past in a volatile world

"The preservation of cultural heritage is a monumental task. The aim of this book is to explore the preservation of movable, immovable, man-made, and socially constructed heritage in an expansive way. Studies in preservation have tended to reflect particular disciplinary lines : library and archival studies, museum studies, art history, historic preservation, and other fields that focus on preservation from particular vantage points. The premise of this book is that there are broad preservation issues that can be viewed through a variety of disciplines. Law, political science, business, architecture, computer science, geography, cultural tourism and cultural heritage management, sociology, and environmental science (itself a multidisciplinary academic field) are some of the fields that address preservation-related issues. For example, international laws may be essential to recovering stolen artifacts or protecting heritage in war. Natural disasters affect heritage collections; disaster preparedness and recovery can be approached from many angles including public policy, science, and the sociology of disasters. Anthropology and history offer approaches to understanding and addressing multi-cultural issues in preservation. This book considers many ways of looking at preservation and unpacks the idea that we are what we preserve"--De l'éditeur.;I. Context. Introduction: We are what we preserve -- and don't preserve ; A tale of monuments in two cities -- II. Cultural genocide. To destroy culture : Raphael Lemkin's lessons about genocide and how they relate to the preservation of cultural heritage ; Documenting cultural heritage in Syria -- III. Approaches to preservation. Collecting as preservation ; Worth dying for? : Richard Nickel and historic preservation in Chicago -- IV. Information or object? What are we really trying to preserve : the original or the copy? ; It takes a (virtual) village : some thoughts on digital preservation -- V. The greening of preservation. Sustainable preservation -- VI. Enduring, ephemeral preservation. Preservation : enduring or ephemeral? ; Epilogue: Berlin as a city of reconciliation and preservation.