What follows is a short list of books for those of you who have been following the recent removal of monuments in New Orleans, as well as the broader debate, and are looking for suggestions for further reading.
This list includes titles that focus specifically on Civil War monuments, but also more broadly to include other periods in American history that have been memorialized as well as the international context.
This is certainly not intended as an exhaustive list.
- Thomas J. Brown, The Public Art of Civil War Commemoration (Bedford/St. Martin’s Press, 2004).
- Erika Doss, Memorial Mania: Public Feeling in America (The University of Chicago Press, 2010).
- Sarah S. Driggs, Richard G. Wilson, and Robert P. Winthrop, Richmond’s Monument Avenue (University of North Carolina Press, 2001).
- William B. Lees and Frederick P. Gaske, Recalling Deeds Immortal: Florida Monuments to the Civil War (University Press of Florida, 2014)
- Stanford Levinson, Written in Stone: Public Monuments in Changing Societies (Duke University Press, 1998).
- James A. Percoco, Summers With Lincoln: Looking for the Man in the Monuments (Fordham University Press, 2008).
- Kirk Savage, Standing Soldiers, Kneeling Slaves: Race, War, and Monument in Nineteenth-Century America (Princeton University Press, 1997).
- Timothy S. Sedore, An Illustrated Guide To Virginia’s Confederate Monuments (Southern Illinois University Press, 2011).
Let me know if you have any questions and I will do my best to guide you in the right direction and please feel free to offer any additional suggestions.
Have you seen these?
Chris Graham – “Historian’s Doing Historian things on Confederate Monuments is not enough.”
https://whighill.wordpress.com/2015/10/01/historians-doing-historian-things-on-confederate-monuments-is-not-enough/
Ashley Luskey – “Confederate Iconography, The Next Steps: On Shared Authority, Historical Stewardship, and the Role of the Public Historian”
http://www.civildiscourse-historyblog.com/blog/2016/1/25/confederate-iconography-the-next-steps-on-shared-authority-historical-stewardship-and-the-role-of-the-public-historian
And Graham’s Response to that – “Public historians, social good, and measures of success”
https://whighill.wordpress.com/2016/01/26/public-historians-social-good-and-measures-of-success/
All are well worth reading. I responded to Luskey back in January 2016.
Thanks. That is a great read. These articles and your posts on this subject are really helping to shape my opinions on this issue.
Great. Glad to hear it.
This might not pertain to the post but I have a question.
I have seen on a few forums many people make the argument that Confederate Monuments were erected with the purpose (so we’re talking intent) of intimidating African-Americans in the South. Sort of a Confederate statue as intended to say to black people, “You’re not welcomed here.” I think it’s an interesting argument to entertain, especially with monuments erected during the Civil Rights movement after Brown v. Board. But I am having difficulty finding merit in that argument for monuments erected in the early 20th century. Do you have any input or direction on that?
I enjoyed Civil War Canon: Sites of Confederate Memory in South Carolina by Thomas Brown.
Excellent book.
It’s been 10+ years since I’ve read it, but James Loewen’s Lies Across America also deals with some of these Confederate monuments, too (and is a strong read throughout).