Creative Conservation as Anti-Fascism (1920s-1940s)

Miguel Caballero (Northwestern U) presents his recent book The Monument of Tomorrow (PSUP, 2025), shortlisted for the 2026 Morey Book Award by the College Art Association. This is a study of how radicals (liberals, communists, and anarchists) transformed an aesthetic and political strategy of creative destruction into one of creative conservation in response to the rise of fascism during the 1920s and 1930s. The focus is on the Spanish War (1936–1939), which became a laboratory of creative conservation of cultural heritage for the subsequent World War II (1939-1945) and a crucial milestone in the creation of UNESCO (1945) and the conceptualization of World Heritage (1972).