Written in Stone: Public Monuments in Changing Societies

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 capital? 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? This text considers the 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, and paying particular attention to examples throughout South America, this book looks at social and legal arguments regarding the display, construction, modification and destruction of public monuments. The aim of the book is to offer a meditation on how national cultures have been or may yet be defined through the deployment of public monuments.