Newsweek - USA (2020-12-04)

BY

KEITH LOWE

@KeithLoweAuthor

“I don’t really care what you think.” » P.

NEWSWEEK.COM 11

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HISTORY

monuments are erected to celebrate victories and mourn losses. we chisel names into

buildings as a way to claim a piece of posterity. But what happens when those same statues and touted heroes

are no longer role models for society’s current values? In the wake of the George Floyd protests this summer, statues

throughout America of Christopher Columbus, Jefferson Davis, Stonewall Jackson, John Calhoun and others have

been torn down. Princeton University removed President Woodrow Wilson’s name from its School of Public Policy

and the American Museum of Natural History in New York City requested that a statue of President Theodore

Roosevelt be removed from the front of its building because it depicts Black and indigenous people in an inferior

way. What is the value in monuments to the past? Award-winning historian Keith Lowe tackles these questions

among others in his new book, Prisoners of History (St. Martin’s, December). In this excerpt from his book, Lowe

explores the differing attitudes to monuments by Europeans and Americans by analyzing the Iwo Jima Marine

Corps Memorial and explains how American flag-waving is perceived very differently abroad.

Monumental

Perceptions

On the anniversary of Pearl Harbor,

can understanding differing perspectives on the

$merican ʀag at the ,Zo -ima memorial help

us understand the legacy of other statues—and

Zhether they should still stand"

has ever produced.” How can any real-life soldier or

veteran possibly live up to such expectations?

In the American consciousness, the role that their

soldiers played during the Second World War has

come to represent everything that is best about their

country. Europeans simply can’t quite believe that

anyone is serious when they speak

about their war veterans in this way.

But this gulf in understanding be-

tween Europeans and Americans is

immediately apparent as soon as one

looks at their war memorials. Amer-

i often give lectures about the second world

War and America’s mythology of heroism. Americans

sometimes seem to regard their war heroes as if they

were not human at all, but figures from legend, or

even saints. President Ronald Reagan spoke of them

as a Christian army, impelled by faith and blessed

by God. President Bill Clinton called

them “freedom’s warriors,” who had

immortalized themselves by fighting

“forces of darkness.” TV journalist Tom

Brokaw famously proclaimed them

“the greatest generation any society