The Same Ax, Twice: Restoration and Renewal in a Throwaway Age Book

From the inside flap:
"An old farmer boasts that he has used the
same ax his whole life -- he's only had to replace the handle three times and the head twice. In an eclectic, insightful meditation on the powerful impulse to preserve and restore, Howard Mansfield explores the myriad ways in which we attempt to reconnect with and recover the past -- to use the same ax twice."

The perfect choice for a book club made up of preservationists, Mansfield touches on all those wonderfully debatable issues about authenticity, the power and/or meaning of history in the modern world, interpretation, how preservation fits within discussions of urban planning and sustainability, our need for touchstones of what is "real" and how the world seems to be losing those touchstones.