ABSTRACT
HISTORIC PRESERVATION has been one of the broadest and longest-lasting land-use refonn efforts in this country. It is therefore ironic that we have so little understanding of its history. Scholars have written prolifically on the history of museums, national monuments, and historical artifacts, but very little on the effort to preserve historic buildings and places. Advocacy and scholarship have both suffered from this lack of perspective. The potential of historic preservation as a social movement is immense; it has the capacity to help forestall the destructive and unregulated development that threatens to destroy the places Americans love. But before it can achieve its vision, the preservation movement must lose its blinders and open itself to the new possibilities that only an understanding of history can provide. The essays in this book are intended to contribute to that process.
