Standing Soldiers, Kneeling Slaves

I consider Standing Soldiers, Kneeling Slaves one of the best books on how Confederate monuments came to dominate nineteenth-century public spaces – most notably in my hometown of Richmond, Virginia - and what they tell us about post-Civil War history.

It is a compelling narrative of how white Southern society purposefully chiseled racism and white superiority into their post-war commemorative landscape, and used these memorials to both re-define the public’s memory of the Civil War and to cement the white-black hierarchy established during slavery. 

Savage’s analysis of the Confederate monuments looks at all the political, historical, cultural, and artistic factors… show more.

This book defines a critical point in American history and how it was marked in our public spaces. 

It makes you rethink the standard formula for a heroic monument and what its message really is.

In the cover image of the Emancipation Monument not only is the liberated slave kneeling, he is mostly unclothed and unnamed.

The imposition of images of slavery and white supremacy in our public spaces is what is being contested in the current controversies over the removal of Confederate memorials.

I found this book invaluable in historicizing a problem with which we as a nation are… show more.

Kirk Savage’s book was one of the first critical monographs focusing on the presence and problems of race representation in American monument culture. Written well before monument removals in the 21st century, Savage identified what would become one of the central issues of our time: how Americans have created and sustained racial injustice in the public square via monuments and memorials. This book elevated the study of monuments in American classrooms—and society. The recent controversy over whether to remove the Emancipation Monument by Thomas Ball from public squares in Boston and Washington, DC indicates that Americans have been wrestling… show more.