Professor Mary Beard on the history of the National Trust

The BBC. The RNLI. The National Trust. There seems to be no British institution that the right does not despise. Hence the Daily Mail's current campaign against the Trust.

Which makes this lecture by Mary Beard on the Trust's history timely.

As the blurb on YouTube explains:

This is the second annual Octavia Hill Lecture from the National Trust, in collaboration with Times Radio. 

Professor Beard asks ‘Who owns the past?’ She examines what the past is for, how we can learn from and challenge it, and how we can bring it to life. 

Throughout her lecture, Professor Beard considers issues of authenticity and ownership and questions who makes the decisions about collection displays. She looks at how the past is reconstructed and how it's discussed and presented. 

Professor Beard uses the National Trust and the historic houses in our care as a gateway to speak on wider debates around history, heritage and ownership, and to shed a light on what the past says about society and the wider world.