Men from the Ministry

Description:

Between 1900 and 1950 the British state amassed a huge collection of over 800 historic buildings, monuments and historic sites and opened them to the public. It was an enterprise without precedent. Governments elsewhere had of course assembled collections of paintings, sculptures and books. But Britain created what was effectively an outdoor museum of national history, overseen by a range of voluntary bodies including the Council for the Protection of Rural England, the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings and the National Trust. In this vivid and forcefully argued book Simon Thurley analyses this extraordinary collecting frenzy and places it in the context of an interwar period dominated by nostalgia, neo-romanticism and cultural protectionism. The establishment of a modern state based on deep historical and rural roots encapsulated the view of the former prime minister, Stanley Baldwin, that heritage was the rock out of which the nation's children would be hewn.

subjects: Historic preservation,  Cultural property,  Great britain, cultural policy,  Historic buildings,  Conservation and restoration,  History,  Monuments,  Historic sites,  Antiquities,  Collection and preservation,  Biography,  Officials and employees,  Cultural policy,  Law and legislation,  Great Britain. Department of Ancient Monuments and Historic Buildings,  Great Britain,  Baudenkmal,  Kulturdenkmal,  Denkmalschutz,  Gro€britannien. Commissioners of Works and Public Buildings,  Gro€britannien