Historic real estate : market morality and the politics of preservation in the early United States / Whitney Martinko.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Martinko, Whitney.

Series:

Early American studies.

Early American studies

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Historic preservation--Economic aspects--United States--History.

Historic preservation.

Historic sites--Conservation and restoration--United States--History.

Historic sites.

Historic buildings--Conservation and restoration--United States--History.

Historic buildings.

Historic preservation--Social aspects--United States--History.

Historic preservation--Political aspects--United States--History.

Historic preservation--Moral and ethical aspects--United States--History.

United States.

Genre:

History

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (x, 291 p.) : ill.

Place of Publication:

Philadelphia, Pa. : Univ. of Pennsylvania P., 2020.

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

"This book discusses historic preservation in the early United States. It argues that the history of preservation is a crucial component of the history of American capitalism. U.S. residents shaped the landscape of "modern" capitalism by cultivating dynamic forms of permanence as well as architectural innovation, new construction, and urbanization. This view of the early national built environment disrupts the clean narrative of the privatization of public space to which preservationists, environmentalists, and urbanists sometimes subscribe. Early U.S. advocates of architectural preservation claimed to limit the influence of market mentality on the built environment. But their methods of securing environmental permanence have confounded distinctions between public and private since the eighteenth century. To confront the history of this entanglement is to see historical consciousness at the heart of defining commodity production, consumption, and the value of labor in the past and in the present"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

I. Corporate properties. Capital plans: ancient monuments in public squares ; Sacred forms: public buildings and urban improvements.

II. Commercial sites. The business of preservation: Antiquarian views and commercial enterprise ; Moral real estate: sacred historic space and the politics of speculation.

III. Domestic spaces. Civic housekeeping: voluntary association and domestic economy ; Ancestral estates: patrimonial property and rural improvement ; Epilogue. Rethinking Mount Vernon and legacies of preservation.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780812296990 (ebook)

9780812252095 (hbk.)

OCLC:

1154614534