The Rescuers: The Remarkable People Who Saved World Heritage tells the story of the courageous individuals who gave their all to save cultural treasures on the brink of destruction.

Readers meet the heroic culture warriors of war-torn Ukraine, the Victorian-era lord who saved a Stone Age village on a remote Scottish island; the irascible Texan who harvested the songs of cowboys and Black convicts; the government operatives, soldiers, and paper conservators who saved the documentary remains of an ancient Jewish community; and the visionary ornithologist who brought back the peregrine falcon when DDT almost wiped it out.

The stories celebrate their grit and determination. They also address some of the most consequential issues of our times, such as global warming and unregulated tourism’s threat to fragile sites, Russia’s targeted destruction of Ukrainian cultural heritage, agricultural expansion’s risk to endangered species, religious and cultural genocide in the Middle East, and competing claims of ownership of Native American treasures by museums and tribes. The Rescuers: The Remarkable People Who Saved World Heritage underscores the vital importance of saving the cultural heritage all of us share.