Global Heritage and Memory Studies in the Present – serie

Frank Scholten set out to produce an illustrated Bible, instead returning with captivating documentation of the modernist transformations and intimate views of Palestine from 1921-1923. He documented Palestine as the British Mandate was formally being established, with a taxonomical and ethnographic eye, relating to the modern world he photographed through Biblical passage to explain the complexity of social life of the ‘Holy Land’.Palestine in Transition traces the importance of Frank Scholten’s documentation of the transformations of the British Mandate period. By taking a geographical approach to the collection – like Scholten himself – this book effectively revisits his incomplete project by presenting different regions through discrete chapters by scholars specialized in each field, a century after his visit and the dramatic social, cultural and political upheavals that the ‘Holy Land’ has undergone since then.

Interest in dissonant heritage has grown significantly in recent years. Difficult legacies, such as monuments and urban and artistic works, as well as intangible personal and communal experiences are linked to dictatorships, regimes, wars, slavery, and exploitation. In some places, a dissonant heritage creates tension. In other places, difficult histories are cancelled or ignored. But forgetting is not the solution. Critical analysis can help us ‘face the past’ and process it in order to move forward. This applies to tourism as well: ‘Difficult’ places, monuments and experiences become opportunities for gaining and creating knowledge for a public interested in historical issues. At the same time, tourist presence is an incentive for communities to better comprehend their contested past(s). This volume contains contributions by scholars from various countries and different backgrounds, such as historians, architects, and anthropologists, who deal with this topic from different angles. The volume is divided into two parts: the first part concentrates on Italy, while the second part covers other countries in the world.

This book provides a ground-breaking study of monuments to defeat. Focusing on one sculpture—Gloria Victis, or Glory to the Defeated, by French artist Antonin Mercié—the author examines the artwork’s profound influence on commemorative practices at the turn of the twentieth century. Using case studies spanning Europe, Africa, and North and South America, the research examples given in this book highlights an international trend for erecting public monuments celebrating military defeats. The analysis of the role of public sculpture in shaping collective memory from the standpoint of history’s losers rather than victors reveals surprising connections between defeat and power. Weaving together histories of failed revolutions, foreign conquests, and toppled governments, this book creates a thoughtful analysis of the political manipulation of fact and memory which is just as relevant for the present as it is for the past.

Offering an incisive examination into aspects of the controversy regarding ownership of the marble sculptures infamously removed from the Parthenon by Lord Elgin in the early nineteenth century, this volume challenges long-held scholarly assumptions frequently made in support of the return of the artworks to Athens. With the fate of the Parthenon’s marbles thrust into the spotlight of international media attention over recent years as high-level talks have been underway in an effort to resolve the long-running dispute, this timely book exposes some of the historical inaccuracies and misleading information frequently passed off to academics, students and the general public in an effort to bolster support for the repatriation of the marbles to Greece. It is a volume that offers a fresh perspective on what has long been regarded as the touchstone case for disputes concerning contested cultural heritage.

As a collective, klaverjas players form a distinct community of practice with a unique organisational discourse, language, and set of socialisation practices. Given its prevalence within South Africa’s Black communities, klawerjas, as it is locally known, is perceived as both the traditional game of the communities in question and a marker of a particular regional ethnic identity. The history of klaverjas is part of the unmapped sporting heritage of South Africa’s Black communities, whose true extent and meaning have long remained obscured. This book maps the development of klaverjas, its consolidation, its unique local character, and its intersections with broader societal events. It places competitive klaverjas in the mainstream of South Africa’s sports history and claims its place as a part of the country’s national sports identity.