![]() Belgian King Leopold II was set on fire in Antwerp and doused in red paint in Ghent. Statues of Christopher Columbus were toppled in Minnesota, burned and thrown into a lake in Virginia, and beheaded in Massachusetts. Edward Colston, a member of Parliament and slave trader, was knocked off his plinth in Bristol, England, and hurled into the harbor. Lee, head of the Confederate Army, was covered in graffiti in Richmond, Virginia. From the US and the UK to Belgium, New Zealand, and Bangladesh, Black Lives Matter protesters defaced, and in some cases, hauled down statues of Confederate icons, slaveholders, and imperialists. ![]() In this timely and lively look at the act of toppling monuments, the popular historian and author of Blood and Sand explores the vital question of how a society remembers-and confronts-the past. Von Tunzelmann reveals that statues are not historical records but political statements and distinguishes between statuary and other forms of sculpture, public art, and memorialization."-Provided by publisher. Exploring the rise and fall of twelve famous, yet now controversial statues, Alex von Tunzelmann takes us on a fascinating global historical tour filled with larger than life characters and dramatic stories. But as the past three hundred years have shown, history is not erased when statues are removed. ![]() ![]() ![]() About the Book "In 2020, history came tumbling down. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |