Historic Preservation Theory: An Anthology

Historic Preservation Theory: An Anthology

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The study of historic preservation theory in the United States has been limited by the lack of a comprehensive anthology of literature spanning the history of thought in the discipline. While a few key texts such as Viollet-le-Duc's On Restoration (1854) and John Ruskin's Lamp of Memory (1849) have been reprinted ad infinitum, the enormous body of preservation knowledge produced since the Renaissance remains obscure to most American students, who until now have had no easy way to access it. This anthology offers classic texts from the United States, China, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Russia, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Austria, Czech Republic, Spain, Italy, Greece, Egypt, Mexico, Brazil, Australia, and more, giving students a broad introduction to the history of preservation theory. A quarter of the texts included are first English translations of foundational texts, such as Henri Gregoire's Report on the Destructions Brought About by Vandalism, and on the Means to Suppress It (1794), which not only coined the word vandalism but also served as the intellectual impetus for the creation of a national heritage protection bureaucracy under France's revolutionary government. Other first translations include Georg Dehio's Monument Protection and Monument Preservation in the Nineteenth Century (1905), which shaped modern preservation in Germany Gustavo Giovannoni's The Theory of Pruning (1931), which changed the paradigm of how to modernize historic centers in Italy, and Liang Sicheng's Why We Must Research Chinese Traditional Architecture (1944). The texts are presented chronologically, with introductions by the editor that contextualize each thinker's contribution to the development of historic preservation theory.