ABSTRACT
We shall do better to look upon the war ruins not so much as the graveyard of the past,
but as the cradle of the future.
The Builder, 19 September 19411
THE sweeping geopolitical changes after 1945 transformed the wider context of the ConservationMovement. Previously, the heritage world had been divided by violent national rivalries and by ideological differences such as the balance between private and state initiative, although key values
were held in common. Now, there was a new balance of forces. The disappearance of aggressive
nationalism allowed the Conservation Movement to become a more peaceful, measured place,
developing its ideas and policies rather out of the public limelight. But there were new divergences.
The Cold War boosted opportunities for building and planning, but also opened up a far sharper set
of ideological differences, in which the role of old buildings was often seriously called into question.
