This collection brings together leading writers and thinkers to examine the ways in which ingrained assumptions about heritage are being challenged today. It explores key questions that surround heritage as a pressing political issue: what happens when the concept of culture is uncoupled from the nation? What meanings does heritage have in the context of the new societies and within the so-called new "politics of difference"? How does history become heritage? What history should we preserve as heritage? The contributors draw upon visual, literary and documentary evidence to examine heritage's contested histories. The result is an anthology of critical writing which should be indispensable reading for those with an interest in cultural history, politics and European studies.