Fallen Idols
History is not erased when statues are pulled down. It is made.
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $15.99
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
Books of 2021, The Economist
'Alex von Tunzelmann is one of the most gifted historians writing today. Brilliant and trenchant, witty and wise, Fallen Idols is a book you will adore, devour, and talk about to everyone you know. Hesitate no longer; buy this book.' Suzannah Lipscomb, author, award-winning historian and broadcaster
'Like all the best historians von Tunzelmann uses the past to explain what the hell is going on today. She does so with a flair, her signature mix of scholarship and succinctness that is so compelling. If you want to make sense of the statues debate, and the coming culture war over our history, this is where you need to start.' Dan Snow
'A timely, sparkling and often hilarious book.' Michael Wood
In 2020, statues across the world were pulled down in an extraordinary wave of global iconoclasm. From the United States and the United Kingdom to Canada, South Africa, the Caribbean, India, Bangladesh, and New Zealand, Black Lives Matter protests defaced and hauled down statues of slaveholders, Confederates, and imperialists. Edward Colston was hurled into the harbour in Bristol, England. Robert E. Lee was covered in graffiti in Richmond, Virginia. Christopher Columbus was toppled in Minnesota, beheaded in Massachusetts, and thrown into a lake in Virginia. King Leopold II of the Belgians was set on fire in Antwerp and doused in red paint in Ghent. Winston Churchill was daubed with the word 'racist' in London.
Statues are one of the most visible - and controversial - forms of historical storytelling. The stories we tell about history are vital to how we, as societies, understand our past and create our future. So whose stories do we tell? Who or what defines us? What if we don't all agree? How is history made, and why?
FALLEN IDOLS looks at twelve statues in modern history. It looks at why they were put up; the stories they were supposed to tell; why those stories were challenged; and how they came down.
History is not erased when statues are pulled down. If anything, it is made.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Historian von Tunzelmann (Blood and Sand) takes a brisk and informative look at "how societies around the world have put up, loved, hated and pulled down statues in order to make statements about themselves." She traces the rise and fall of a dozen statues over the past 250 years, including a sculpture of King George III torn down by an "excited crowd" of Continental Army soldiers and American patriots in New York in 1776, and a bronze statue of Saddam Hussein toppled by American soldiers and a small group of Iraqi civilians in 2003. According to von Tunzelmann, Egyptian pharaohs routinely destroyed statues of their "rivals and predecessors," while the late 19th century saw the height of "statuemania" as a "visual expression of Great Man history." She also delves into the "wave of iconoclasm" that swept the world in 2020, drawing a connection between George Floyd's murder by a Minneapolis police officer and the tearing down, 13 days later, of a statue of 17th-century slave trader Edward Colston in Bristol, England. Contending that traditional statues are "didactic, haughty and uninvolving," von Tunzelmann advocates for festivals, performances, and other "forms of commemoration" that "engage people" and "bring history to life." Enriched by accessible history lessons and trenchant analysis of contemporary politics and culture, this is a persuasive call for a "much wider and more mature engagement with the past."
