History and Theory of Historic Preservation
MIT OpenCourseWare offers this graduate-level course on how the United States decided which buildings, neighborhoods, and landscapes are worth saving, and why. Lectures and readings trace the historic preservation movement from its origins through the laws, public policies, and cultural attitudes that shape decisions about the built environment, with comparisons to preservation traditions in other countries. The course is framed as a history and theory grounding rather than a technical or applied preservation class, so it covers debates over what counts as heritage, who gets to decide, and how economic and political interests intersect with conservation. Materials include the syllabus, reading list, and assignment prompts as published by MIT OpenCourseWare, free to access with no certificate offered. It suits students in urban planning, architecture, or history who want the intellectual background behind preservation law and practice rather than restoration techniques themselves.