Constructing Industrial Pasts: Heritage, Historical Culture and Identity in Regions Undergoing Structural Economic Transformation, ed. Stefan Berger

Most studies of industrial heritage focus on specific sites with little regard for the wider politics of industrial heritage in deindustrialised areas. This volume demands that we go beyond this narrow focus and move towards regional studies and draw trans-regional comparisons. To that end, the collection (edited by Stefan Berger) offers us a series of regional case-studies from across Europe as well as two chapters on China and one on Australia. We therefore learn how the industrial past has been regarded in disparate locations ranging from Romania’s Jiu Valley to ‘Sooty Manchester’. This regional approach is generative, particularly with regard to the ways that industrial heritage gets incorporated into regional or national identity construction. Without question, Germany’s Ruhr Valley has emerged as a global superpower in industrial heritage—its giant industrial landscape parks have become sites of pilgrimage for heritage enthusiasts from around the globe. But we also see how industrial...