'The point is, history sells': Martin Davies's political critique of history and heritage.
In this article, we aim to work in the political direction that Martin Davies's critique of history-focused-behaviour has opened up. More specifically, we apply Davies's thinking to a discussion of recent UK governments' heritage policies and preferred types of heritage discourse. After an initial o...
| Publicado en: | Rethinking History Vol. 29; no. 2; pp. 291 - 313 |
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| Autores principales: | , |
| Formato: | Artículo |
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Taylor & Francis Ltd
Jun2025
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=186418713&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 186418713 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 13642529 5C5 jtl: Rethinking History issn: 13642529 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Jun2025 vid: 29 iid: 2 pid: 377 pub: Taylor & Francis Ltd artinfo: ui: 186418713 10.1080/13642529.2024.2437874 ppf: 291 ppct: 22 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T – @attributes: type: P size: 377KB tig: atl: 'The point is, history sells': Martin Davies's political critique of history and heritage. aug: au: Norton, Claire Donnelly, Mark affil: Independent Scholar, UK School of Liberal and Creative Arts, St Mary's University, Twickenham, London, UK su: Davies, Martin L. Colonies Slavery Nostalgia London (England) sug: subj: London (England) Davies, Martin L. Colonies Slavery Nostalgia keyword: colonialism commemoration Heritage London nostalgia slavery urban regeneration ab: In this article, we aim to work in the political direction that Martin Davies's critique of history-focused-behaviour has opened up. More specifically, we apply Davies's thinking to a discussion of recent UK governments' heritage policies and preferred types of heritage discourse. After an initial overview of how heritage is instrumentalised for political and financial purposes in the present, we move on to discuss two case studies of heritage work in operation. The first of these looks at one of London's most recent regeneration schemes in King's Cross. This redevelopment provides a good illustration of how heritage professionals, property developers and the urban regeneration industry can work together in ways that summon history as a resource for overriding the mechanisms of democratic accountability. The second study looks at how the politics of heritage relate to the legacies of British involvement in slavery and the slave trade, mainly focusing on the recent controversy about the statue of Robert Milligan at Canary Wharf, plus the more high-profile pulling down of the Edward Colston statue in Bristol in 2020. As these cases suggest, instrumental and coercive rhetoric about the apparent public value of history intensified under the pressures of financial crisis, Brexit and the disruptions of the pandemic. Davies's observation that history performs a socially affirmative function that must identify itself with prevailing social and political practice describes the current situation well. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y custom: Copyright of Rethinking History is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. item: Rethinking History holder: Taylor & Francis Ltd dt: @attributes: year: 2025 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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