Controversial Monuments and Memorials: A Guide for Community Leaders(American Association for State and Local History)

The impetus for the first edition was violent actions---the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017, which was touched off by discussions about removing a statue to Robert E. Lee, and resulted in the death of Heather Heyer. Since the publication of the first edition, both history and democracy are being threatened in ways that we were only seeing small glimpses of in 2018. Today, attempts to elevate new or more complex history has been met with vilification. States across the country have passed legislation to ban critical race theory from being taught in public schools and are seeking ways to limit what teachers are allowed to teach about slavery and race in the United States. These threats are unlikely to abate. As such, our responsibility as historians, community leaders, museum professionals, and citizens is to redouble our efforts to share human stories in relatable ways and to exercise our rights and wield our power whenever and however we can. The revised edition tackles the great issues of our time against the backdrop of monument culture and historical truth.

Table of Contents:
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS LIST OF FIGURES LIST OF TERMS PREFACE INTRODUCTION Charlottesville, Memory and How to Read this Book Part I: MUSEUMS, CONTROVERSY AND THE PAST Chapter History as Legend and Myth as Fact, David B. Allison Confronting Confederate Monuments in the Twenty-First Century, Modupe Labode History, Memory, and the Struggle for the Future, W. Todd Groce “No Sooner Was It Over, than the Memory Made It Nobler”, Bob BeattyPart II: THE CIVIL WAR, RECONSTRUCTION AND THE INSTITUTIONALIZATION OF RACISM Chapter Remembering the Civil War, David B. Allison Memorializing the Confederate Past at Gettysburg During the Civil Rights and Cold War Era, Jill Ogline Titus Tributes to the Past, Present, and Future: World War I-Era Confederate Memorialization in Virginia, Edited for Revised Edition, Thomas R. Seabrook Don’t Call Them Memorials, Julian C. Chambliss A Lost Cause in the Bluegrass: Two Confederate Monuments in Lexington, Kentucky,Stuart W. Sanders Challenging Historical Remembrance, Myth, and Identity: The Confederate Monuments Debate, Edited for Revised Edition, F. Sheffield Hale Empty Pedestals: What should be done with Civic Monuments to the Confederacy and its Leaders?, Civil War TimesPart III: NATIVE PEOPLES AND WHITE-WASHED HISTORY Chapter From Columbus to Serra and Beyond, David B. Allison Native Voices at Little Bighorn National Monument, Gerard Baker The Removal of James Earle Fraser’s Statue of Theodore Roosevelt from the American Museum of Natural History, William S. WalkerPart IV: IDENTITY POLITICS AND THE RATIONAL AND SYMPATHETIC MINDS Chapter 15. Group Behavior, Self-examination and Clearing the Air around Controversial Issues,David B. Allison 16. Confederate Memorials: Choosing Futures for Our Past, A Veteran’s Perspective,George McDaniel 17. Speech upon the Removal of Confederate Statues from New Orleans, May 19, 2017,Mitch Landrieu 18. A Reflection of Us: The Simpsons and Heroes of the Past, Edited for Revised Edition, Jose Zuniga Part V: COMMUNITY RESPONSIVENESS AND HISTORICAL RE-CONTEXTUALIZATION Chapter 19. “The Struggle to Overcome the Negatives of the Past”: Germany’sVergangenheitsbewältigung and South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Program, DavidB. Allison 20. “We as Citizens.…”: Approaches to Memorialization by Sites of Conscience around the World, Edited for Revised Edition, Linda Norris 21. Monumental Relationships: International Monument Culture and the United States in the Early 21st Century, Laura A. Macaluso 22. Listening and Responding to Community: A Long View, David B. Allison 23. Confederate Statues at the University of Texas at Austin, Ben Wright 24. Honoring El Movimiento: the Chicano Movement in Colorado,JJ Lonsinger Rutherford 25. Not What's Broken; What's Healed: Women in El Barrio and the Healing Power of Community, Vanessa Cuervo Forero 26. Telling the Whole Story: Education and Interpretation in Support of #1 in Civil Rights: The African American Freedom Struggle in St. Louis, Elizabeth Pickard 27. Project Say Something’s Whose Monument Project: Not Tearing Down History, But Building Up Hope, Brian Murphy 28. Changing of the Guard: Curating a New Conversation Around Colorado’s Toppled Civil War Monument, Jason L. Hanson CONCLUSION Appendix Bibliography Index About the Editor and Contributors

About the Author :
David B. Allison is a member of the Arts & History team at the City and County of Broomfield. He is the author of Living History: Effective Costumed Interpretation and Enactment at Museums and Historic Sites (2016) and has worked in museums for almost 20 years. Getting his start in museums at Conner Prairie Interactive History Park, and with a nine-year tenure at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, Allison seeks to connect with people to illuminate important stories.

Review :
It's exciting to imagine the possible audiences and uses for this very readable book. With its multiple perspectives; local, national, and international scope; and blend of primary and secondary sources, it might interest students, instructors, practitioners, scholars, members of the general public, or politicians. The authors address this timely topic with historical knowledge and an understanding of reparative justice, explaining how monuments have often contributed to systemic racism and how they can be removed, replaced, or contextualized without erasing difficult histories. History is messy and monuments to history are equally so. Are they representative of a community’s history? Do they encapsulate communal memories? Or, are they simply public art? Alison’s book is a reminder that not only do these pieces represent a view of history, but they also have a history of their own. This new edition of Controversial Monuments and Memorials offers museums and public historians a variety of perspectives and potential paths to dealing with monuments and the history that is attached to them.