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sydsnot71's review against another edition
5.0
This is the first of the six books on the Wolfson History Prize shortlist. I'm planning to read all of them before the winner is announced.
Fallen Idols by Alex von Tunzelmann is, if I look at the other titles on the list, probably the book most aimed at the general reader. It is also the book that ties itself most obviously to contemporary politics. The impact of the "culture wars" is the background to this book and how that has impacted on how we talk about and study history. As von Tunzelmann says in her introduction, "This is a book about how we make history." *It would link nicely with "What is History, Now?" edited by Helen Carr and Suzannah Lipscomb. A book which features an essay by Alex von Tunzelmann.
The book looks at the removal of the statues of twelve people, starting with the removal of the statue of George III in New York by American revolutionaries in 1776 and finishing with the fall of a statue of George Washington in Oregon in 2020. Each statue is contextualised and their falls are contextualised. Or, in the case of Leopold II of Belgium, why some of the statues haven't been removed.
Two of von Tunzelmann's examples - the statue of George V in Delhi and the various 'imposing erections' of Rafael Trujillo's Dominican Republican dictatorship - are drawn from areas she has written about in other places books: Indian Summer: The Secret History of the End of an Empire (2007) and Red Heat. Conspiracy, Murder, and the Cold War in the Caribbean (2011). But there's talk of Stalin, Lenin, the Duke of Cumberland, Saddam Hussein, Cecil Rhodes, Robert E Lee and Edward Colston also.
This breadth of examples offers up different reasons for their fall and different results, but it allows von Tunzelmann to challenge the arguments presented by those who would use the fall of statues to defend a status quo. She shows how statues represent a 'great man' mythologised version of history that - and forgive the pun - can't be set in stone because how we see ourselves and the world changes. History is a dynamic subject. It is an ongoing debate between what we think we know, what we'd like to think of ourselves and 'what really happened'.
The examples are all stories interestingly told. Von Tunzelmann writes clearly and well. The best reason for reading this book though is that it is a defence of history as a subject and an explanation of how it works:
"Any written history, even the blandest series of historical documents, can only ever be a map, not the actual territory of history, which vanishes as soon as it has happened. History is gone. What we have is the memory of history, and that is always contested. " (p. 8)
It would actually make a good book for teaching history at schools or as introductory parts of university courses. When I did my history degree the first part of our course was 'What is History?' and they used historical 'mysteries' to introduce us to the methodologies and practices of historical study. We looked at things like 'Was there a Robin Hood?', 'Who Killed JFK?', 'What Happened to the Romanovs' etc. It gave you an insight into the subject that opened it up in a fun and intelligent way. That's what von Tunzelmann's book does. It tells the stories of twelve statues to show us what history is, which I can only applaud.
*It would link nicely with "What is History, Now?" edited by Helen Carr and Suzannah Lipscomb. A book which features an essay by Alex von Tunzelmann.
Fallen Idols by Alex von Tunzelmann is, if I look at the other titles on the list, probably the book most aimed at the general reader. It is also the book that ties itself most obviously to contemporary politics. The impact of the "culture wars" is the background to this book and how that has impacted on how we talk about and study history. As von Tunzelmann says in her introduction, "This is a book about how we make history." *It would link nicely with "What is History, Now?" edited by Helen Carr and Suzannah Lipscomb. A book which features an essay by Alex von Tunzelmann.
The book looks at the removal of the statues of twelve people, starting with the removal of the statue of George III in New York by American revolutionaries in 1776 and finishing with the fall of a statue of George Washington in Oregon in 2020. Each statue is contextualised and their falls are contextualised. Or, in the case of Leopold II of Belgium, why some of the statues haven't been removed.
Two of von Tunzelmann's examples - the statue of George V in Delhi and the various 'imposing erections' of Rafael Trujillo's Dominican Republican dictatorship - are drawn from areas she has written about in other places books: Indian Summer: The Secret History of the End of an Empire (2007) and Red Heat. Conspiracy, Murder, and the Cold War in the Caribbean (2011). But there's talk of Stalin, Lenin, the Duke of Cumberland, Saddam Hussein, Cecil Rhodes, Robert E Lee and Edward Colston also.
This breadth of examples offers up different reasons for their fall and different results, but it allows von Tunzelmann to challenge the arguments presented by those who would use the fall of statues to defend a status quo. She shows how statues represent a 'great man' mythologised version of history that - and forgive the pun - can't be set in stone because how we see ourselves and the world changes. History is a dynamic subject. It is an ongoing debate between what we think we know, what we'd like to think of ourselves and 'what really happened'.
The examples are all stories interestingly told. Von Tunzelmann writes clearly and well. The best reason for reading this book though is that it is a defence of history as a subject and an explanation of how it works:
"Any written history, even the blandest series of historical documents, can only ever be a map, not the actual territory of history, which vanishes as soon as it has happened. History is gone. What we have is the memory of history, and that is always contested. " (p. 8)
It would actually make a good book for teaching history at schools or as introductory parts of university courses. When I did my history degree the first part of our course was 'What is History?' and they used historical 'mysteries' to introduce us to the methodologies and practices of historical study. We looked at things like 'Was there a Robin Hood?', 'Who Killed JFK?', 'What Happened to the Romanovs' etc. It gave you an insight into the subject that opened it up in a fun and intelligent way. That's what von Tunzelmann's book does. It tells the stories of twelve statues to show us what history is, which I can only applaud.
*It would link nicely with "What is History, Now?" edited by Helen Carr and Suzannah Lipscomb. A book which features an essay by Alex von Tunzelmann.
e_f_p21's review against another edition
challenging
hopeful
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.75
beemini's review
5.0
I got really into what I called #statuetwitter during that week or two of 2020 when people were throwing statues into the sea. I became obsessed with the idea of iconoclasm and statue razing, and this author apparently felt the same way. We get a good variety here from King George III to the present day. The writing kept my interest.
meganmckinnon's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.75