1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910682586703321

Autore

Strittmatter David

Titolo

Memory, heritage, and preservation in 20th-century England / / David Strittmatter

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Cham, Switzerland : , : Palgrave Macmillan, , [2023]

©2023

ISBN

3-031-04469-X

Edizione

[1st ed. 2023.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (309 pages)

Collana

Britain and the world

Disciplina

909

940

Soggetti

Collective memory

Historic sites

National characteristics, British

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references.

Nota di contenuto

Part I Battlefields -- Chapter I: The Hastings Battlefield -- Chapter II: The Bosworth Battlefield -- Part II Plolitical Sites -- Chapter III: Runnymede…- Chapter IV: The Peterloo Massacre Site -- Chapter V: The Crystal Palace -- Chapter VI: The Great White City.

Sommario/riassunto

This book explores commemoration practices and preservation efforts in modern Britain, focusing on the years from the end of the First World War until the mid-1960s. The changes wrought by war led Britain to reconsider major historical episodes that made up its national narrative. Part of this process was a reassessment of heritage sites, because such places carry socio-political meaning as do the memorials that mark them. This book engages the four-way intersection of commemoration, preservation, tourism, and urban planning at some of the most notable historic locations in England. The various actors in this process—from the national government and regional councils to private organizations and interested individuals—did nothing less than engineer British national memory. The author presents case studies of six famous British places, namely battlefields (Hastings and Bosworth), political sites (Runnymede and Peterloo), and world’s fairgrounds (the Crystal Palace and Great White City). In all three genres of heritage



sites, one location developed through commemorations and tourism, while the other ‘anti-sites’ simultaneously faltered as they were neither memorialized nor visited by the masses. Ultimately, the book concludes that the modern social and political environment resulted in the revival, creation, or erasure of heritage sites in the service of promoting British national identity. A valuable read for British historians as well as scholars of memory, public history, and cultural studies, the book argues that heritage emerged as a discursive arena in which British identity was renegotiated through times of transitions, both into a democratic age and an era of geopolitical decline. David Strittmatter is an Assistant Professor of History at Ohio Northern University (ONU), in the USA. His research in memory studies has particular emphases on tourism and commemoration. In addition, he oversees public history and museum studies initiatives at ONU. He earned his doctorate at the University of Buffalo (SUNY) and prior degrees at the University of St Andrews in Scotland and Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.