Review by Choice Review
By the end of the next half-century, for the first time in history, a majority of the world's population will be urban. This major change is accompanied by increased poverty and overpopulation, which greatly impact the survival of the cultural heritage landmarks found in cities, including buildings, sites, and landscapes. UNESCO's Our Creative Diversity (2nd rev. ed., 1996) defined the importance of culture in social and economic sustainable development. That theme is enhanced in this collection of 51 essays, many of which were first presented at the 1999 World Bank Symposium on Preserving the Architecture of Historic Cities and Sacred Places, whose draft proceedings were also edited by Serageldin and Martin-Brown, both noted authors in the conservation field. Discussing both the Western and developing worlds, the essays in this volume emphasize the impossibility of separating cultural diversity from economic diversity, and discuss the practical aspects of cultural preservation, including public policy, partnerships, and technical applications. The individual authors collectively break new ground as they convincingly theorize and document the existence of tangible cultural heritage as a vital component in reducing poverty, because of its importance to the esteem and identity of people. Graduate students and above. B. Henson Georgia Institute of Technology
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
