Changes or innovations which threaten our heritage arouse great hostility in those who want to preserve the past in its entirety. The heritage has become a commodity, a device to sell everything from biscuits to country houses. Fowler skilfully examines the present relationship between the past and the present, analyzing the manner in which we mould and interpret the past to fit our current needs. He assesses the influence of our heritage in the last decade of the 20th century, and with a wide range of examples judges the consequences of the increasing pressures of the heritage industry. As...

The best of the world's cultural landscapes - the results of humanity's interaction with the environment over millennia - are a legacy of enormous importance, comparable with great archaeological monuments and works of art. Since 1992 the international community has begun to define, identify, designate and protect these special places, through UNESCO's World Heritage Programme, which now inscribes World Heritage landscapes as well as World Heritage sites. This book provides an accessible introduction to these globally significant landscapes.

Peter Fowler asks why these places matter...