In the history class I teach, I have students design a monument. It's a small project that I want to expand later, but it needs to commemorate some person or event of the 20th Century. One of the resources I used this year for that particular project is Judith Dupre's 2007 book, "Monuments: America's History in Art and Memory."

I didn't realize it, but this author also wrote one of my favorite architecture nerd books, "Skyscraper." So it's fitting that I fell in love with this book as soon as I started reading it. The cover of the book tells you this will be a remarkable book, as it's cutaway stone-textured cover reveals glimpses of the Statue of Liberty, Lincoln Memorial, Liberty Bell, Mount Rushmore, and other remarkable monuments and memorials.

Dupre covers a total of 38 monuments in detail, but refers to hundreds of others in the book. Some only get two pages, others get up to ten pages, including various incarnations of the monuments that took generations to build. She includes all of the ones you'd expect, like the Statue of Liberty, Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, Jefferson Memorial and Vietnam Veteran's Memorial...but also includes some that I wouldn't expect to see in what's essentially an architecture book. Some of these less conventional monuments include the AIDS Quilt, Temporary Memorials of 9/11, and the messages on Voyager I and II sent into space decades ago.

For each monument, Dupre gives a look at the historic event that's being commemorated, the design of the monument as an architect and a "civilian," issues about the building of the monument, and how the monument has been treated by history since being completed.

Some of the most interesting are ones I've read about before, but are still interesting--the history of the Washington Monument, for example--the long and convulted path that both the design and the current obelisk took are an interesting look at monuments and why we build them. The same is true of the controversial World War II Memorial, and Mount Rushmore. Critics railed against Mount Rushmore while it was being planned and built, but it's become a part of the American landscape that few would erase.

The introduction is one of the best parts of the book, exploring the history and tradition of memorials, and why the United States would want to have some of their own...and why the shape of the memorials is often so traditional, and when someone makes changes to that tradition, we fight against it. There's also a timeline across the entirety of the book--just the bottom inch or so of each page. The timeline starts with the cave paintings at Lascaux France in 17,000 BC, and continues on with historic events and monuments through the ages, until 2007 and the dedication of the Normandy American Cemetery Vistor's Center.

If you've been to some of these monuments and memorials, this book is a beautiful reminder of the places you've been. It's also virtually a checklist for places you want to visit--as long as you want to remain in the Eastern States. There's not much here on the Pacific Coast, Rockies, or Southwest United States, although we do have our share of memorials "Out West" too. In any case, this is a strong book, well-researched and written, with compelling photographs and real life experiences of these stunning pieces of memory.

MORE ABOUT AMERICA'S MONUMENTS
Etched In Stone: Enduring Words From Our Nation's Monuments


Recommended: Yes