Standing soldiers, kneeling slaves : race, war, and monument in nineteenth-century America / Kirk Savage.

Title:

Standing soldiers, kneeling slaves : race, war, and monument in nineteenth-century America / Kirk Savage.

Author:

Savage, Kirk, 1958-

Call Number:

973.71 S921

Publication Information:

Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, c1997.

Physical Description:

xiv, 270 p. : ill. ; 25 cm.

Description:

"The United States of America originated as a slave society, holding millions of Africans and their descendants in bondage, and remained so until a civil war took the lives of a half million soldiers, some once slaves themselves. Standing Soldiers, Kneeling Slaves explores how that history of slavery and its violent end was told in public space--specifically in the sculptural monuments that increasingly came to dominate streets, parks, and town squares in nineteenth-century America. Here Kirk Savage shows how the greatest era of monument building in American history arose amidst struggles over race, gender, and collective memory. As men and women North and South fought to define the war's legacy in monumental art, they reshaped the cultural landscape of American nationalism...Standing Soldiers, Kneeling Slaves, the first sustained investigation of monument building as a process of national and racial definition, probes a host of fascinating questions: How was slavery to be explained without exploding the myth of a united people? How did notions of heroism become racialized? And more generally, who is represented in and by monumental space? How are particular visions of history constructed by public monuments? Written in an engaging fashion, this book will appeal to a wide range of readers interested in American culture, race relations, and public art."

Subjects:

Slaves Emancipation United States. , Public sculpture, American 19th century. , National characteristics, American History 19th century.

Locations:

United States History Social aspects. Civil War, 1861-1865
United States Race relations.

Terms of Use:

For permission to reproduce or publish material from this item, please contact the New Hampshire Historical Society. Users are responsible for following all copyright and intellectual property laws.

Credit Line:

Gift of Wesley G. Balla; June 2021;