Smashing Statues: The Rise and Fall of America's Public Monuments

by Erin L. Thompson

Overview

A leading expert on the past, present, and future of public monuments in America.

An urgent and fractious national debate over public monuments has erupted in America. Some people risk imprisonment to tear down long-ignored hunks of marble; others form armed patrols to defend them. Why do we care so much about statues? Which ones should stay up and which should come down? Who should make these decisions, and how?

Erin L. Thompson, the country’s leading expert in the tangled aesthetic, legal, political, and social issues involved in such battles, brings much-needed clarity in Smashing Statues. She lays bare the turbulent history of American monuments and its abundant ironies, from the enslaved man who helped make the statue of Freedom that tops the United States Capitol, to the fervent Klansman fired from sculpting the world’s largest Confederate monument—who went on to carve Mount Rushmore. And she explores the surprising motivations behind contemporary flashpoints, including the toppling of a statue of Columbus at the Minnesota State Capitol, the question of who should be represented on the Women’s Rights Pioneers Monument in Central Park, and the decision by a museum of African American culture to display a Confederate monument removed from a public park.

Written with great verve and informed by a keen sense of American history, Smashing Statues gives readers the context they need to consider the fundamental questions for rebuilding not only our public landscape but our nation as a whole: Whose voices must be heard, and whose pain must remain private?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393867671
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	02/08/2022
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.10(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Erin L. Thompson is a professor of art crime at the City University of New York and the author of Possession: The Curious History of Private Collectors. Her writing has appeared in the Washington Post, New York Times, and Smithsonian Magazine. She lives in New York.

Editorial Reviews

2021-10-27
An art historian digs into a contentious subject.

Thompson, a professor of art crime at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, offers a probing examination of the meaning of public monuments, long a vexed issue for Americans from the time that colonists beheaded a statue of King George III. Throughout the nation’s history, the author argues persuasively, powerful White Americans have erected monuments to underscore their authority and support their own interests. “Eighty-five percent of the more than four hundred Confederate monuments erected from 1886 to 1912 were in public spaces other than cemeteries,” writes Thompson. Not all of them featured war heroes. “By far the most common choice for Civil War monuments,” Thompson reveals, was “an anonymous, low-ranking soldier in parade rest,” conveying a message that obedience was crucial for Whites to prevail. Besides considering the overt messages of some prominent monuments, Thompson investigates the historical context and the artists’ beliefs, revealing some discomfiting facts. For example, a bronze statue entitled Freedom, located in the U.S. Capitol, was made by a slave owner and cast by one of his slaves. Stone Mountain, a vast monument in Georgia, was the product of the angry, paranoid sculptor Gutzon Borglum, for whom it was a moneymaking scam. A statue of Columbus featuring a “straight nose and strong jaw, was a visual argument for the whiteness—and therefore, the Americanness—of the artist’s fellow Italian Americans.” Thompson also discusses the recent protests and the fates of monuments that have been toppled or removed. Since those protests began, bills proposed in 18 states “would increase the criminal penalties for damaging a monument.” Furthermore, most monuments have been either moved or placed in storage to be erected in the future. “Shuffling statues around our cities is like moving an abusive priest to another parish,” Thompson asserts. Besides removing monuments, she suggests, new ones must be added to reflect the values—and the history—that Americans want to honor.

A well-informed, often surprising, history of public veneration.

Kirkus Reviews

"A compelling historical account…[Thompson's] examination of 'art crime' as central to understanding our shameful United States history is captivating."— Jack Christian Los Angeles Review of Books

"A crisply written book encompassing law, art, history and politics that contextualizes the American debate over monuments."— Library Journal (starred review)

"Offers a probing examination of the meaning of public monuments…A well-informed, often surprising, history of public veneration."— Kirkus Reviews

"[A] trenchant account…Full of intriguing historical tidbits and incisive cultural analysis, this is a worthy study of a complex and controversial issue."— Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher