Culture is constructed, negotiated, managed, and shared by various ideological, political, and moral reasonings which manifest themselves tangibly and intangibly in public monuments, architecture, memorial sites, theaters, museums, orchestras, and heritage associations. The contributions to this volume explore the intersection of cultural heritage and nationality in societies that are characterized by national, multi-national, and post-national concepts. They question the roles that cultural heritage plays in its various contexts, and the ways in which ideology functions to produce it.

Traditional literacy, usually defined as the ability to read print materials, is but one component in a connected series. In an effort to facilitate the concept of connections, this book has been divided into four main sections: The many faces of literacy; the land and people of Iceland; the lessons from Iceland, an examination of the results of 57 interviews with fish factory workers, educators, librarians, community leaders, publishers, and students. The interviews sought the reasons for the remarkable nearly-100% print literacy in Iceland. Numerous tables summarize the interview data; and implications for the future.

Nicknamed both “Mobtown” and “Charm City” and located on the border of the North and South, Baltimore is a city of contradictions. From media depictions in The Wire to the real-life trial of police officers for the murder of Freddie Gray, Baltimore has become a quintessential example of a struggling American city. Yet the truth about Baltimore is far more complicated—and more fascinating. To help untangle these apparent paradoxes, the editors of Baltimore Revisited have assembled a collection of over thirty experts from inside and outside academia. Together, they reveal that Baltimore has been ground zero for a slew of neoliberal policies, a place where inequality has increased as corporate interests have eagerly privatized public goods and services to maximize profits. But they also uncover how community members resist and reveal a long tradition of Baltimoreans who have fought for social justice. The essays in this collection take readers on a tour through the city’s diverse neighborhoods, from the Lumbee Indian community in East Baltimore to the crusade for environmental justice in South Baltimore. Baltimore Revisited examines the city’s past, reflects upon the city’s present, and envisions the city’s future.

By improving our understanding of how the tangible and intangible dimensions of heritage are correlated, we could develop a relationship with heritage that goes beyond the mere act of conservation. This book argues that we need to recognize the historic monument as a tangible aspect of a holistic expression of culture that is rooted in specific spatio-temporal conditions. However, since the latter are constantly changing, it is vital to identify an implicit contradiction with the goals of conservation. As the intangible dimensions are more dynamic, driven by the transmission, reception, and advancement of knowledge, the reliance of the prevailing treatment of heritage today, conservation, ossifies this relationship. By examining three major heritage monuments - the Pantheon, Teotihuacan's Sun Pyramid and Alhambra - the book shows how these sites are the product of multiple strategies and unforeseen agents, accumulated through history. It emphasizes how these historical trends need to be better understood in order to attain a more 'organic' relationship with heritage and offers some recommendations that should be analyzed in participative processes of deliberation: the Pantheon's continuity could be extended; the Pyramid's loss, accepted; and Alhambra's exclusion, reversed. In this way, the book invites people to engage heritage from a historical understanding that is open to critical reassessment, dialogue, and cooperation.

Do women have a history? Did women have a renaissance? These were provocative questions when they were raised in the heyday of women’s studies in the 1970s. But how relevant does gender remain to premodern history in the twenty-first century? This book considers this question in eight new case studies that span the European continent from 1400 to 1800. An introductory essay examines the category of gender in historiography and specifically within premodern historiography, as well as the issue of source material for historians of the period. The eight individual essays seek to examine gender in relation to emerging fields and theoretical considerations, as well as how premodern history contributes to traditional concepts and theories within women’s and gender studies, such as patriarchy.

Celebrating the theme ‘Shared heritage’, this volume presents the peer-reviewed proceedings from IKUWA6 (the 6th International Congress for Underwater Archaeology, Fremantle 2016). Papers offer a stimulating diversity of themes and niche topics of value to maritime archaeology practitioners, researchers, students, museum professionals and more.