Apples to Oranges? The American Monumental Landscape

Abstract

Grassroots activism has pushed cities across the United States to reconsider Confederate Monuments. Historians have played an important public role in those discussions. To date approximately 100 such monuments, of the more than 1500 that dot the American landscape, have been removed. The Confederate monuments debate has lent support to the work of activists challenging a wide range of objectionable monuments. For example, memorials that commemorate individuals involved in settler colonialism and the genocide of Native Americans, including monuments to U.S. Presidents, are being reassessed. A broad-based reconsideration of the monumental landscape will require hard political choices as Americans reckon with their difficult national past.