paean to the work of six groups or figures whose efforts saved important sites, memories, animals, music or documents from destruction or disappearance. Nancy Moses The Rescuers: The Remarkable People Who Saved World Heritage presents introductory overviews of notable preservation cases (mostly) from the twentieth century and biographies the major individuals.

The book is divided into six chapters, each focused on a particular topic. The text is broken up with archival images, and the end sections include suggested additional readings and notes on sources. Chapters are as follows: 1. Monuments Officers and Culture Warriors, 2. The Laird of Breckness: the Man Who Saved Skara Brae, 3. Harold Rhode, Doris Hamburg and others... [those] Who Saved the Iraqi Jewish Archive, 4. Tom Cade: The Man Who Saved the Peregrine Falcon. 5. Louis Shotridge and George B. Gordon: the Men Who Saved Tlingit Culture, and 6. John A. Lomax: the Man Who Saved American Folk Song Classics. For each of these, Moses, details the backgrounds of the key figures, the specific subject that was saved, how the key figures accomplished their work and a conclusion linking the heritage to the present.

Moses is able to blend news reporting, personal travel reflections and historical research leading to an engaging narrative that can bounce from general narration to a self reflection on what it meant to be in a historic location or viewing the preserved treasure. Moses is also clear in noting that despite the deserved praise for accomplishments, the individuals are not without their faults or problems. Lomax in particular for his collection methods and racist viewpoint. Chapter 5, focused on Tlingit peoples also takes the necessary time to point out the changing cultural understandings and viewpoints, especially with the passage of Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act and questions of who 'owns' objects in an institution.

Moses, writing in the Preface, stated this work as drawn from the pandemic isolation where she reviewed news clippings from prior books focused on cultural heritage or treasures and found herself drawn to the stories of the individuals who dedicated themselves to the cause of the future. This work is a concise introduction to each of the featured topics and would serve as a useful work to demonstrate the importance of institutions such as the Library of Congress or most museums and their roles in preserving our histories and cultures.

Recommended to readers or researchers of history, culture, cultural preservation or exceptional figures.

What an absolutely fascinating book! Author Nancy Moses is a cultural heritage scholar and Chair of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, the government agency that supports and oversees museums, historic sites, historic preservation, and archives. Her credentials are why I picked up this book, since I've long been fascinated by cultural heritage and preservation. But I got much, much more than I bargained for.

Ms. Moses takes a broad view of culture and heritage. This book contains chapters about attempts to save art and artifacts looted or damaged in war, a neolithic Scottish village, the peregrine falcon, indigenous art and language, American cowboy songs, and more. Although these seem like unrelated subjects, Moses helps us to understand with her enthusiasm, down-to-earth writing and hands-on research that we're talking about real people, places and things - not dusty artifacts in the back corner of some museum. Preserving them enriches us, teaches us about places, times and events that have relevance to our lives, and introduces to us reasons why cultural heritage is often lost and deserves to be saved. Sadly, it is a fact that we as people have often destroyed the heritage of those who have come before us. Many times this is deliberate, as in an invading power trying to destroy the culture and identity of those they hope to conquer. Other times, the loss is due to unexpected consequences, as in the case of the pesticide DDT proving toxic to birds and other animals and not just the insects that we hoped to control. And often, it is just due to neglect and our mistaken notion that cowboy songs or indigenous languages are not relevant to our life today.

I had previously done some reading on some of the subjects in this book, and I included the idea of cultural preservation in my classes when I was a college professor of the arts. I strongly believe that this is a field that needs to be more widely recognized, along with the knowledge that what is past is also important to our present and our future. Perhaps by knowing more, we can prevent destruction of treasures by people for whom money and "progress" is more important than history; the deliberate destruction of cultural identity by conquering powers; and the simple neglect or even scorn for cultural heritage that is considered more primitive or less desirable than our own.

Many thanks to Rowman and Littlefield Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this outstanding book.