Historic Cities and Sacred Sites: Cultural Roots for Urban Futures

This book contains a comprehensive collection of essays that extensively outline the connection between cultural identity, historic preservation, community development, and economic sustainability. The aim is to clearly express the inseparable link between cultural heritage preservation and poverty reduction. The essays are broken up into eight chapters, each addressing specific aspects of heritage preservation. Starting by generally defining cultural identity and historic preservation, the text becomes more specific with examples of how historic preservation has been utilized to regenerate communities. A detailed look at the political and economic aspects of historic preservation is included, followed by historic preservations role amidst the modern world and global economy. The work of Ismail Serageldin and the Aga Khan Award Program is very influential throughout the various essays. The text only falls short by just barely mentioning the role of environmental sustainability in community development, and also does not address the negative impacts of cultural identity used to establish power rather than community development. I have found it very informative as an architecture student, and think it is a valuable resource for anyone attempting to combat the McMansion approach to development.