09/06/2021
Historian von Tunzelmann (Blood and Sand ) takes a brisk and informative look at “how societies around the world have put up, loved, hated and pulled down statues in order to make statements about themselves.” She traces the rise and fall of a dozen statues over the past 250 years, including a sculpture of King George III torn down by an “excited crowd” of Continental Army soldiers and American patriots in New York in 1776, and a bronze statue of Saddam Hussein toppled by American soldiers and a small group of Iraqi civilians in 2003. According to von Tunzelmann, Egyptian pharaohs routinely destroyed statues of their “rivals and predecessors,” while the late 19th century saw the height of “statuemania” as a “visual expression of Great Man history.” She also delves into the “wave of iconoclasm” that swept the world in 2020, drawing a connection between George Floyd’s murder by a Minneapolis police officer and the tearing down, 13 days later, of a statue of 17th-century slave trader Edward Colston in Bristol, England. Contending that traditional statues are “didactic, haughty and uninvolving,” von Tunzelmann advocates for festivals, performances, and other “forms of commemoration” that “engage people” and “bring history to life.” Enriched by accessible history lessons and trenchant analysis of contemporary politics and culture, this is a persuasive call for a “much wider and more mature engagement with the past.” (Oct.)
"The heart of the book is von Tunzelmann’s 12 chapter-long stories of figures famous enough to have become the subjects of commemorative statues, and then controversial enough to have some or all of these monuments removed. . . . Many of these stories are fascinating. . . .Von Tunzelmann ends the book with a strong argument. . . . If a book’s purpose is to tell you stories and leave you with an idea, this idea of better styles of commemoration will stay with me." — James Fallows, New York Times Book Review
“Thoughtful and fast-paced…. [Von Tunzelmann] makes a compelling case that scrutinizing monumental statuary is an integral part of what open societies do as they reassess past values and seek new ones to guide their futures…. A convincing, logic-driven argument that cuts through the emotional and ideological static around statue toppling, which often obscures the facts about how and why they were put up in the first place.” — Washington Post
“One of the best books there is for understanding the long story behind our own ‘statue wars’.” — Mary Beard, The Guardian
“Vital and relevant.” — Booklist
“Brisk and informative. . . . Enriched by accessible history lessons and trenchant analysis of contemporary politics and culture, this is a persuasive call for a ‘much wider and more mature engagement with the past.’” — Publishers Weekly
“An illuminating guide to a much-needed discussion about history and how it is represented.” — BookPage
“A lively, engaging and often witty exploration of why statues are put up, why they are taken down and what this teaches us about history and memory. It’s extremely well researched. . . . In this fascinating book [von Tunzelmann] asks us to look ‘beyond the binaries of pride and shame, good and bad, heroes and villains’ and think more deeply about how history is made.” — Sunday Times (London)
“Gripping. . . . Von Tunzelmann, an Oxford educated historian with an eye for human detail as well as a sure-handed grasp of the larger picture, does a marvelous job of recreating the tension and bungling that swept up up Cairo, London, Moscow, Budapest, Paris and Washington during the harrowing two weeks of Oct. 22 to Nov. 26, 1956.... Not only exciting and satisfying but also timely.” — Evan Thomas, New York Times Book Review, on Blood and Sand
“Anchored with fresh documentary evidence, Blood and Sand is a riveting re-evaluation of the Cold War crises of 1956: Suez and Hungary. Alex von Tunzelmann has written a definitive history of these crucial events — a real page-turner and monument to first-rate scholarship.” — Douglas Brinkley, Professor of History at Rice University and author of Rightful Heritage: Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Land of America, on Blood and Sand
“This thrilling ticktock brings the emotional core of geopolitical maneuvering into dramatic focus, with portraits of leaders variously honorable, pigheaded, irresolute, pusillanimous, and susceptible to mood swings.” — The New Yorker on Blood and Sand
“This book offers a shrewd, exciting history of the Suez crisis of 1956, and makes a clear case for its relevance today.” — New York Times on Blood and Sand
“The effect is a cinematic, you-are-there style of history-writing, which plunges the reader into the chaos of events.” — Adam Kirsch, Tablet, on Blood and Sand
This thrilling ticktock brings the emotional core of geopolitical maneuvering into dramatic focus, with portraits of leaders variously honorable, pigheaded, irresolute, pusillanimous, and susceptible to mood swings.
The New Yorker on Blood and Sand
A lively, engaging and often witty exploration of why statues are put up, why they are taken down and what this teaches us about history and memory. It’s extremely well researched. . . . In this fascinating book [von Tunzelmann] asks us to look ‘beyond the binaries of pride and shame, good and bad, heroes and villains’ and think more deeply about how history is made.”
Thoughtful and fast-paced…. [Von Tunzelmann] makes a compelling case that scrutinizing monumental statuary is an integral part of what open societies do as they reassess past values and seek new ones to guide their futures…. A convincing, logic-driven argument that cuts through the emotional and ideological static around statue toppling, which often obscures the facts about how and why they were put up in the first place.”
"The heart of the book is von Tunzelmann’s 12 chapter-long stories of figures famous enough to have become the subjects of commemorative statues, and then controversial enough to have some or all of these monuments removed. . . . Many of these stories are fascinating. . . .Von Tunzelmann ends the book with a strong argument. . . . If a book’s purpose is to tell you stories and leave you with an idea, this idea of better styles of commemoration will stay with me."
Anchored with fresh documentary evidence, Blood and Sand is a riveting re-evaluation of the Cold War crises of 1956: Suez and Hungary. Alex von Tunzelmann has written a definitive history of these crucial events — a real page-turner and monument to first-rate scholarship.
One of the best books there is for understanding the long story behind our own ‘statue wars’.
Vital and relevant.”
Gripping. . . . Von Tunzelmann, an Oxford educated historian with an eye for human detail as well as a sure-handed grasp of the larger picture, does a marvelous job of recreating the tension and bungling that swept up up Cairo, London, Moscow, Budapest, Paris and Washington during the harrowing two weeks of Oct. 22 to Nov. 26, 1956.... Not only exciting and satisfying but also timely.
An illuminating guide to a much-needed discussion about history and how it is represented.”
Thoughtful and fast-paced…. [Von Tunzelmann] makes a compelling case that scrutinizing monumental statuary is an integral part of what open societies do as they reassess past values and seek new ones to guide their futures…. A convincing, logic-driven argument that cuts through the emotional and ideological static around statue toppling, which often obscures the facts about how and why they were put up in the first place.”
Vital and relevant.”
The effect is a cinematic, you-are-there style of history-writing, which plunges the reader into the chaos of events.
This book offers a shrewd, exciting history of the Suez crisis of 1956, and makes a clear case for its relevance today.
New York Times on Blood and Sand
This thrilling ticktock brings the emotional core of geopolitical maneuvering into dramatic focus, with portraits of leaders variously honorable, pigheaded, irresolute, pusillanimous, and susceptible to mood swings.
This book offers a shrewd, exciting history of the Suez crisis of 1956, and makes a clear case for its relevance today.
Kristin Atherton, usually an expressive narrator, adopts a subdued and matter-of-fact tone here, sounding much like a prosecuting attorney summing up her case. She, like British historian and author Alex von Tunzelmann, is content to let history tell its own tale, and in just over nine hours the two of them badly batter the great man theory. The reputations of 12 famous men—including Stalin, Robert E. Lee, Saddam Hussein, Columbus, Washington, and, in particular, Lenin—are examined through the histories of their statues. The result is droll, subversive to the core, and highly entertaining. Consider those statues of British monarchs after the British departed India, or of Cecil Rhodes in the former Rhodesia. Atherton’s voice doesn’t tell, but somewhere you know she must have cracked a smile. D.A.W. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine
Kristin Atherton, usually an expressive narrator, adopts a subdued and matter-of-fact tone here, sounding much like a prosecuting attorney summing up her case. She, like British historian and author Alex von Tunzelmann, is content to let history tell its own tale, and in just over nine hours the two of them badly batter the great man theory. The reputations of 12 famous men—including Stalin, Robert E. Lee, Saddam Hussein, Columbus, Washington, and, in particular, Lenin—are examined through the histories of their statues. The result is droll, subversive to the core, and highly entertaining. Consider those statues of British monarchs after the British departed India, or of Cecil Rhodes in the former Rhodesia. Atherton’s voice doesn’t tell, but somewhere you know she must have cracked a smile. D.A.W. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine