Industry, Heritage, the Media, and the Formation of a British National Cultural Memory

David Sables

doi:10.1007/s10761-017-0396-3

Abstract

This paper examines the premise that officially sponsored heritage bodies in England are intrinsically involved in the formation of national memories which fail to reflect the stresses within British society and ignore the value of areas of recent past. As a result, investigation of sections of British history is discouraged and the archeological potential of sites of conflict and confrontation between the mainstream elements of society and those seen as threatening it are being destroyed without the proper archeological investigation. This premise will be examined by looking at the how the history of British industry and a former mining community are presented.

Highlights

This paper examines the part played by historians and archeologists in the formation of a national cultural memory and identity by British governments which, in my opinion, fails to reflect many of the stresses within modern British society
This paper will examine how these arms of the state direct heritage narratives by deciding what is of value and worthy of protection and what will be preserved for future, which is an integral part of a political process of reinventing the National Memory
Heritage has always followed the political agendas of governments and so this paper questions whether it is in the long term interest of heritage to blindly reinforce these agendas

Summary

Introduction

This paper examines the part played by historians and archeologists in the formation of a national cultural memory and identity by British governments which, in my opinion, fails to reflect many of the stresses within modern British society. This paper will discuss how archaeologists and historians need to question how and why they assign values to cultural places, whose cultural heritage and ideology is being displayed and their relevance to the audience It will examine the implications of political and media pressure on heritage studies and the effects it has had on.

A Brief History of Post-War Identity-Building

Findings

Conclusion