UNESCO, Cultural Heritage, and Outstanding Universal Value explores how states parties to the 1972 UNESCO World Heritage Convention have understood the core notion of this particular treaty – that is, ‘outstanding universal value’ – from 1972 until 2011. Specifically, it investigates whether state-level implementation reflected the objectives identified at the international level or, instead, whether ‘dissonances can be detected’ (2). Sophia Labadi’s analysis is based on two types of textual evidence: the official documents produced by expert groups and the World Heritage Committee (the intergovernmental committee charged with implementing the Convention); and the nomination files prepared by governments to justify their application for World Heritage status of specific sites. The book is grounded in value-based heritage conservation and, more broadly, in the interdisciplinary literature on heritage as a multifaceted phenomenon.