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Interest in our past and engagement with history is everywhere. Turn on the television and you will surely be able to find films or drama sewries set in the past. Take a stroll through any town and you will spot not only monuments and well-restored historic buildings, but also old-time cars, vintage clothing stores, and antiques dealers and second-hand furniture stores. Walk into any bookshop and you will find an abundance of historical novels, travel guides to historic places, and books on topics like art history or the Second World War. Researching one’s own family tree, watching historical festivals, and playing computer games that are set in historic environments are common leisure activities. The vintage, the traditionally hand-crafted, and the historically or personally significant are guaranteed to find attention, engagement, and passionate defense when threatened with loss or destruction.

For international heritage revivals within Europe, the concepts, strategies, and policies of the European authorities are usually very important. Not only does the European Commission stimulate international cooperation in the field of shared heritage and identities; it also creates a framework for these projects, since many heritage networks, platforms, and co-operative efforts are established at the European scale. In addition, it provides the necessary economic and political liaisons. Therefore, it is important to gain some insight into how European cooperation and the idea of European identity have evolved. Today’s Europe was shaped by the wish to bring lasting peace to the continent. We would not need pan-European governance if the diversity between countries and cultures was not as large as it is, and thus diversity is a core element in the : the attempt to create a shared notion of identity among the citizens of the member states. As we will see, most international heritage policies, projects and selections are based on national interpretations of the past. In practice, it appears to be extremely difficult to select and represent heritages in a truly international manner.

A heritage revival on a European scale will be ineffective if it is not embedded in heritage practices on a regional or local scale. Chapter 2 discusses the way in which the early medieval past is remembered and forgotten in today’s Alsace, a region with great symbolic value with respect to European peace and unification. In this chapter, I discuss heritage practices and the role of the experience of authenticity in a relatively new region: the Arnhem Nijmegen City Region in the eastern part of the Netherlands, where various interpretations and selections of the past compete for attention and investment.

The digital revolution has, beyond a doubt, changed the world. At first, the Internet looked unthreatening, like just another mass medium with the hyperlink being its main gimmick. By 2012 it has turned into a multi-billion dollar business for some, and irrevocably destroyed old business models for others, such as publishers and the music industry. Social media, the pinnacle of the digital revolution, have become a normal topic of conversation, and its main platforms are publicly traded top brands. The internet has also entered the ‘offline’ domain, as smartphones, NFC, RFID, QR, and a bunch of other acronyms ensure that people are always connected. The result of all this is, in the words of Brian Solis, one of the world’s foremost analysts of the digital age, “the end of business as usual.”  

An old Chinese proverb says “Tell me and I’ll forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I’ll understand.” More than any other medium, computer games have the intrinsic ability to involve their players in the world they depict; for they not only make us remember particular scenes we play, but also make us understand more of the world they involve us in. They are immersive, i.e. they make us forget the world around us, taking us away to a different place, a different life, or a different time.

June 2012. Just like every week, the mood is convivial on the . The atmosphere is cheerful and lots of jokes are cracked. The comedian Graham Norton is interviewing Charlize Theron, Steve Coogan, and Jon Hamm. Hamm plays the main character (an incorrigible chain smoker, drinker, and womanizer) in the American hit series , which takes place in an advertising agency in the 1960s. Hamm turns out to be a very funny man, and the answers he gives Norton prompt loud laughter. For instance, he says, “One of the dangers of doing anything that takes place in a relatively recent past is that it’s all been documented. There are crazy fans who will say ‘Well it wasn’t raining on December 14, 1968. This is clearly bullshit.’ ”

dealing with historical, legendary or mythical topics are a popular component of everyday entertainment. Makers of these   create impressive pictures of past landscapes and material culture, construct detailed scenarios of historical events and develop captivating character sketches of their protagonists. Their works are lively, atmospheric, and present intensely emotional stories, and they provide an easily accessible, understandable and entertaining interpretation of the past.

The Romans loved to re-create their glorious deeds. It is well known that some of their famous battles were re-enacted in their arenas and amphitheatres, and some of these buildings were even designed to be able to be flooded so that re-creations of naval battles could be staged in them. During the Middle Ages, the life and death of Christ, as well as events from the lives of saints, were performed in the streets of towns and villages, and even today some of these traditional processions are still to be seen – the Procession of Holy Blood in Bruges is only one of many such examples. Perhaps our Stone Age ancestors recreated hunting scenes before an audience of their youngsters, as Bushmen still do today. Living History has quite a long tradition of bringing the past to the attention of the public.

For several decades digital 3D models and virtual environments have been used in the domains of archaeology and cultural heritage. Over time, the advantages of these digital visualisations of historical places and landscapes have become widely recognized and appreciated. Much knowhow is now available regarding their usability and effectiveness in meeting specific goals, for instance in education.

“Let us by all means cleanse, then mend, then adapt frankly to our own modern uses; and though in this process a shock may be given to the merely romantic spirit, a better and truer artistic result is reached, at any rate when with time and use the new elements again harmonise into the old.”