Where does our fascination for 'heritage' originate? This groundbreaking comparative study of preservation in France, Germany and England looks beyond national borders to reveal how the idea of ...heritage emerged from intense competition and collaboration in a global context. Astrid Swenson follows the 'heritage-makers' from the French Revolution to the First World War, revealing the importance of global networks driving developments in each country. Drawing on documentary, literary and visual sources, the book connects high politics and daily life and uncovers how, through travel, correspondence, world fairs and international congresses, the preservationists exchanged ideas, helped each other campaign and dreamed of establishing international institutions for the protection of heritage. Yet, these heritage-makers were also animated by fierce rivalry as international tension grew. This mixture of international collaboration and competition created the European culture of heritage, which defined preservation as integral to modernity, and still shapes current institutions and debates.
This paper offers a historical perspective on the role played by international agencies in the governance of culture and nature remains since World War II. While most accounts of heritage ...internationalism focus on the period since the foundation of UNESCO, the discussion here identifies the tensions between nationalism and internationalism in a longer trajectory.
The paper discusses the relationship between the state, historic buildings preservation and nationalism in Britain from the nineteenth century to the present. It argues against the idea that, because ...of comparatively continuous nation and state formation, state preservation in Britain until the mid twentieth was exceptionally weak. By suggesting a broader understanding of ‘the state’, the paper shows the variety of ways in which institutions within the state were, and remain, involved. Through spotlights on major turning points in the administrative framework, it further argues that nationalism has been more often mobilized to foster state preservation than the other way round and suggests to place nationalism alongside other motive forces to understand the rise and transformation of state involvement in preservation.
In the early twenty-first century, the Louvre is the most visited museum in the world. Yet little is known about how visit numbers to French museums developed. Compared to the Anglo-Saxon world, the ...collection and publication of visit data began late and was initially far from systematic. Some figures were collected in the late nineteenth century, but correspondence from the early twentieth century indicates that not even the Ministry of Fine Arts, overseeing the National Museums, was always aware of them. More complete numbers appeared from 1922 when entrance fees were introduced. However, visitors entering on free days were not yet counted. In the 1930s, data collection for the National Museums was systematized by the Directorate of National Museums, but figures were rarely published. The aim of this article is, therefore, to establish the sources that might be used for a quantitative approach to museum visiting in France and to reflect on the reasons for the initial indifference towards the counting of visitors and the standardisation with international practices over time. The article argues that the triggers for changes in the culture of counting in France were both internal and external. A prolonged debate about the introduction of entrance fees took place from the start of the Third Republic to the interwar years and let to the search for existing numbers in France and abroad. The Fine Arts Administration compiled data about practices in other countries and a number of monographs on the subject were published. The press also frequently referenced foreign examples. These documents provide a fascinating insight into comparisons and emulation of foreign practices at the time, allowing us to rethink the modern obsession with counting as the result of a transnational process.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
BFBNIB, DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Introducing the Journal of Contemporary History Special Issue 'The Restitution of Looted Art in the 20th Century', this article proposes a framework for writing the history of looting and restitution ...in transnational and global perspective. By comparing and contextualizing instances of looting and restitution in different geographical and temporal contexts, it aims to overcome existing historiographical fragmentations and move past the overwhelming focus on the specificities of Nazi looting through an extended time-frame that inserts the Second World War into a longer perspective from the nineteenth century up to present day restitution practices. Particular emphasis is put on the inter-linked histories of denazification and decolonization. Problematizing existing analytical, chronological and geographical frameworks, the article suggests how a combination of comparative, entangled and global history approaches can open up promising new avenues of research. It draws out similarities, differences and connections between processes of looting and restitution in order to discuss the extent to which looting and restitution were shaped by – and shaped – changing global networks.
Swenson comments on Tyrrell's article regarding the creation and promotion of national parks in the US. Tyrrell not only shows that the origins of the national park in America were transnational ...rather than national, but also demonstrates that the motives behind early American nature conservation were much more complex than the familiar tale of cultural nationalism would have us believe.
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