In its relation to the existing environment, preservation is essentially a conservative act.  It often privileges the past over the future.  However, depending on the local context, making historic preservation a priority can work to either conservative or radical ends.  This course surveys a broad spectrum of preservation activities and grapples with the ways in which people have come to understand and value the past.  Preservation will be discussed in the context of cultural history and the changing relationship between existing buildings and landscapes and attitudes toward history, memory, invented tradition, and place. The course scrutinizes disparate forms of preservation including natural conservation, building restoration, green urbanism, monument and memorial construction, rituals of ancestor worship, philosophies of treating historic materials, and strategies for rebuilding after war, focusing on American and European material, while expanding beyond this geographic frame.  The course will foster an understanding of the social, cultural, and ideological complexity of historic preservation and promote a critical understanding of various concepts of history as they inform contemporary preservation projects.