Prisoners of History
What Monuments to World War II Tell Us About Our History and Ourselves
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
A look at how our monuments to World War II shape the way we think about the war by an award-winning historian.
Keith Lowe, an award-winning author of books on WWII, saw monuments around the world taken down in political protest and began to wonder what monuments built to commemorate WWII say about us today. Focusing on these monuments, Prisoners of History looks at World War II and the way it still tangibly exists within our midst. He looks at all aspects of the war from the victors to the fallen, from the heroes to the villains, from the apocalypse to the rebuilding after devastation. He focuses on twenty-five monuments including The Motherland Calls in Russia, the US Marine Corps Memorial in the USA, Italy’s Shrine to the Fallen, China’s Nanjin Massacre Memorial, The A Bomb Dome in Hiroshima, the balcony at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem and The Liberation Route that runs from London to Berlin.
Unsurprisingly, he finds that different countries view the war differently. In monuments erected in the US, Lowe sees triumph and patriotic dedications to the heroes. In Europe, the monuments are melancholy, ambiguous and more often than not dedicated to the victims. In these differing international views of the war, Lowe sees the stone and metal expressions of sentiments that imprison us today with their unchangeable opinions. Published on the 75th anniversary of the end of the war, Prisoners of History is a 21st century view of a 20th century war that still haunts us today.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Historian Lowe (Savage Continent) examines WWII monuments around the world in this thought-provoking survey. "Hero" monuments, such as the Douglas MacArthur Landing Memorial in the Philippines, are less about historical reality than "our mythological idea of what it means to be a hero," according to Lowe. The "comfort woman" statue in Seoul, South Korea (officially known as the Peace Statue), shows how "martyr" monuments can be politicized, while the destruction of Hitler's bunker in Berlin "feels like an exercise in denial." Ridicule might be a better way to deal with the "monsters of our past," Lowe suggests, describing a Lithuanian sculpture park where busts of Communist leaders have been enclosed in a llama pen. Lowe also reflects on visions of "apocalypse" and "rebirth" in WWII memorials, including the balcony at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, which offers visitors a "remarkably soothing" view of the Judean hills after they've gone through exhibits on the horrors of the Holocaust. Lowe's nuanced readings of these and other monuments support his argument that they should be protected from the whims of "contemporary politics." (He notes that anti-USSR sentiment has brought down monuments to WWII heroes in Eastern Europe.) The result is a perceptive and persuasive call for remembering the tragedies and triumphs of the past.
