Written in Stone: Public Monuments in Changing Societies (Public Planet Books) - Hardcover

Levinson, Prof. Sanford

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0822322048 ISBN 13: 9780822322047

Publisher: Duke University Press Books, 1998

Synopsis

Is it “Stalinist” for a formerly communist country to tear down a statue of Stalin? Should the Confederate flag be allowed to fly over the South Carolina state capitol? Is it possible for America to honor General Custer and the Sioux Nation, Jefferson Davis and Abraham Lincoln? Indeed, can a liberal, multicultural society memorialize anyone at all, or is it committed to a strict neutrality about the quality of the lives led by its citizens?

In Written in Stone, legal scholar Sanford Levinson considers the tangled responses of ever-changing societies to the monuments and commemorations created by past regimes or outmoded cultural and political systems. Drawing on examples from Albania to Zimbabwe, from Moscow to Managua, and paying particular attention to examples throughout the American South, Levinson looks at social and legal arguments regarding the display, construction, modification, and destruction of public monuments. He asks what kinds of claims the past has on the present, particularly if the present is defined in dramatic opposition to its past values. In addition, he addresses the possibilities for responding to the use and abuse of public spaces and explores how a culture might memorialize its historical figures and events in ways that are beneficial to all its members.

Written in Stone is a meditation on how national cultures have been or may yet be defined through the deployment of public monuments. It adds a thoughtful and crucial voice into debates surrounding historical accuracy and representation, and will be welcomed by the many readers concerned with such issues.

About this title

From the Back Cover

"This remarkable book addresses an issue as old as civilization and as topical as this morning's newspaper. No reader of Levinson's cultivated, nuanced, and balanced narrative will ever view a public monument in quite the same way."--Norman Dorsen; President, ACLU, 1976-1991

About the Author

Sanford Levinson is Professor of Law at the University of Texas, Austin. He is the author and editor of numerous books including Constitutional Faith and Interpreting Law and Literature (with Steven Mailloux).

Edition details

• Publisher: Duke University Press Books
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0822322048
• ISBN 13: 9780822322047
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 160