Fallen Idols Twelve Statues That Made History Alex Von Tunzelmann by Alex Von Tunzelmann 9780063081673, 0063081679 instant download after payment.

In this timely & lively look at the act of toppling monuments, the popular historian & author of Blood and Sand explores the vital question of how a society remembers--& confronts--the past. In 2020, history came tumbling down. From the US & the UK to Belgium, New Zealand, & Bangladesh, Black Lives Matter protesters defaced, & in some cases, hauled down statues of Confederate icons, slaveholders, & imperialists. General Robert E. Lee, head of the Confederate Army, was covered in graffiti in Richmond, Virginia. Edward Colston, a member of Parliament & slave trader, was knocked off his plinth in Bristol, England, & hurled into the harbor. Statues of Christopher Columbus were toppled in Minnesota, burned & thrown into a lake in Virginia, & beheaded in Massachusetts. Belgian King Leopold II was set on fire in Antwerp & doused in red paint in Ghent. Winston Churchill's monument in London was daubed with the word "racist." As these iconic effigies fell, the backlash was swift & intense.  
But as the past three hundred years have shown, history is not erased when statues are removed. If anything, Alex von Tunzelmann reminds us, it is made. Exploring the rise & fall of twelve famous, yet now controversial statues, she takes us on a fascinating global historical tour around North America, Western & Eastern Europe, Latin America & Asia, filled with larger than life characters & dramatic stories. Von Tunzelmann reveals that statues are not historical records but political statements & distinguishes between statuary--the representation of "virtuous" individuals, usually "Great Men"--and other forms of sculpture, public art, & memorialization. Nobody wants to get rid of all memorials. But Fallen Idols asks: have statues had their day?  
Alex von Tunzelmann is the author of Blood and Sand, Indian Summer, and Red Heat. She lives in London.