Heritage vs. History?
This blog post examines the discourse surrounding heritage and history and whether the two terms could, or should, be considered equal. It is inspired by the Open University's ‘Open Learn’ module ‘What is heritage?’. History and heritage can be viewed as both distinct fields, but complementary to the other's mission. Tosh’s The Pursuit of History highlights the role of the historian as building up evidence of the past, examining it, and piecing together what is believed to have happened based on what we see. For the likes of Cobb, the historian must be “endlessly inquisitive and prying” to achieve this. Heritage is a sector reliant on nostalgia and historical significance being attributed by local and national bodies. History, by comparison, can be viewed as less regulated and open to wider debate. For Patrick Wright in On Living in an Old Country (1985), heritage has distinct political undertones. The ‘museumification’ of the United Kingdom, to him, was a deliberate attem...