Prisoners of History: What Monuments to World War II Tell Us About Our History and Ourselves

by Keith Lowe

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250235046
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	09/04/2024
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	344
File size:	31 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

KEITH LOWE is the author of the critically-acclaimed Inferno: The Devastation of Hamburg 1943, and Savage Continent, aninternational bestseller and the winner of both the Hessell-Tiltman Prize for History (2013), and Italy’s prestigious Cherasco History Prize (2015). He lectures on both sides of the Atlantic, appears on TV and radio in Europe and the US, and writes for a variety of magazines and newspapers around the world. He lives in north London with his wife and children.

Table of Contents

Contents
Introduction
Part I – Heroes
1. Russia: ‘The Motherland Calls’, Volgograd
2. Russia and Poland: ‘Four Sleepers’ Monument, Warsaw
3. USA: Marine Corps Memorial, Arlington, Virginia
4. USA and the Philippines: Douglas MacArthur Landing Memorial, Leyte
5. Britain: Bomber Command Memorial, London
6. Italy: Shrine to the Fallen, Bologna
Coda: The End of Heroism


Part II – Martyrs
7. Netherlands: National Monument, Amsterdam
8. China: Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall
9. South Korea: Peace Statue, Seoul
10. USA and Poland: Katyn Memorial, Jersey City
11. Hungary: Monument for the Victims of the German Occupation, Budapest
12. Poland: Auschwitz

Part III – Monsters
13. Slovenia: Monument to the Victims of All Wars, Ljubljana
14. Japan: Yasukuni Shrine, Tokyo
15. Italy: Mussolini’s Tomb, Predappio
16. Germany: Hitler’s Bunker, and the Topography of Terror, Berlin
17. Lithuania: Statue of Stalin, Grutas Park
Coda: The Value of Monsters

Part IV – Apocalypse
18. France: Ruins of Oradour-sur-Glane
19. Germany: Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, Berlin
20. Germany: Monument to the Victims of the Firestorm, Hamburg
21. Japan: A-Bomb Dome, Hiroshima, and the Peace Statue, Nagasaki

Part V – Rebirth
22. United Nations: UN Security Council Chamber Mural, New York
23. Israel: Balcony at Yad Vashem, Jerusalem
24. Britain: Coventry Cathedral
25. European Union: Liberation Route Europe
Conclusion

Editorial Reviews

"Compelling...powerful...[Lowe] looks at the ways in which a diverse set of countries have memorialized that bloody conflict, which set the stage for the world in which we still live... What Prisoners of History does do—and does well—is explain why groups in each country built the monuments in the first place and how changes in politics and international relations affected interactions with them afterward." —Wall Street Journal

“[An] inspired idea . . . Always thoughtful and evocative, sometimes controversial . . . Lowe’s sensitive, disturbing book should be compulsory reading for both statue builders and statue topplers.”

—The Sunday Times (UK)

"Thought-provoking . . . a perceptive and persuasive call for remembering the tragedies and triumphs of the past." —Publishers Weekly

"Fascinating and thoughtful." —Lawrence Freedman, Foreign Affairs Magazine

“The well-balanced range here enables the retelling of some remarkable war stories, while also providing fascinating insights into the ways different nations have remembered or denied issues around national identity and the glory and horrors of war . . . this is some of the most thought-provoking writing about the Second World War.”

—Spectator Magazine

“In this timely book, which neatly combines history, art criticism, and travelogue . . . Lowe is a fine guide to these monuments because he feels the moral force—for good or bad—of each site he visits.”

—The Times (UK)

"[Lowe’s] examples might rightly raise some hackles . . . Insightful accounts of memorials where there is usually more than meets the eye." —Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

11/13/2020

Monuments reflect values at the time they were erected, but, with time, values change. On the 75th anniversary of the close of World War II, Lowe (Savage Continent) looks at several monuments in 16 countries, from the United States and Britain to Russia, Slovenia, Germany, South Korea, China, and Japan. Among the monuments included are statues, shrines, tombs, a whole ghost town, an amusement park, and a continent-wide hiking trail. Asking readers to reflect on who is considered a hero and who is considered a martyr, Lowe's narrative analyzes artifacts such as a monument in Budapest that ignores Hungarian complicity in killings and slights the real victims, Hungary's Jews. The Peace Statue in Seoul shows a seated woman, a "comfort women," one of thousands forced into prostitution by Japanese forces. The statue faces the Japanese embassy in Seoul, witness to an infamy never fully acknowledged by the Japanese government. In evaluating a Lithuanian amusement park where a statue of Joseph Stalin is a tourist draw, Lowe wisely lets the monuments speak for themselves, but what he says is uniformly insightful. Maps and photographs add context. VERDICT An insight into World War II that will appeal mostly to military enthusiasts and those interested in social history.—David Keymer, Cleveland

Library Journal