• The book that put the British 'heritage industry' on the map, opening one of the defining cultural and political debates of its time
• Brilliantly captures the ways in which history lives on as a tangible presence, permeating everyday life and shaping our sense of identity
• Investigates the rise of 'heritage' across contemporary Britain, in literature, advertising, political rhetoric, television, conservation campaigns, and even urban development
• Includes an extensive new preface reflecting on the ongoing debates that the book originally helped to kick-start

New to this edition

• Extensive new preface and dialogue reflecting on the ongoing debate about the heritage industry which the book helped to kick-start.

Readership: All those interested in post-war British history and culture, the Thatcher years, and the heritage industry in Brtiain

"Patrick Wright is a sensitive, ultra-thoughful explorerEL With a large torch and copious notes he invites the reader to a number of meandering guided tours well of the main footpaths. " - Tom Nairn, The Guardian

"A quite exceptional and richly rewarding bookEL You won't feel the same about the Heritage Industry after this devastating series of iconoclastic reflections. " - Colin Ward, Times Educational Supplement

"Wright is a brilliant analyst of cultural meanings and has uncoveredEL a central truth about the force of nostalgia in modern England. " - Paul Addison, London Review of Books

"In a rich and suggestive series of essays Patrick Wright explores the ways in which history itself has become the most powerful source of contemporary meanings about what Britain is and what it is to be British. " - Stuart Hall

Preface to the Oxford University Press edition: Heritage and the Place of Criticism
1: Introduction: Everyday Life, Nostalgia and the National Past
2: Trafficking in History
3: Coming Back to the Shores of Albion: The Secret England of Mary Butts (1890-1937)
4: A Blue Plaque for the Labour Movement? Some Political Meanings of the National Past
5: Falling Back Together in the Nineteen Eighties: The Continuing Voyage of the Mary Rose
6: Moving House in a Welfare State
7: The Ghosting of the Inner City
Afterword: Everyday Life and the Aura of the Modern Past
Appendix: Sneering at the Theme Parks: an Encounter with the Heritage Industry
Index