Andrew Shanken is currently the Director of American Studies, Faculty Curator of the Environmental Design Archives, on the Faculty Advisory Committee at the Townsend Center for the Humanities and the Global Urban Humanities at the University of California Berkeley. He has a joint appointment in American Studies. His most recent book is The Everyday Life of Memorials, which explores memorials’ relationship to the pulses of daily life, their meaning within this quotidian context, and their place within the development of modern cities.
Intro: “The Statue Got Me High,” by They Might Be Giants
“There is nothing in this world as invisible as a monument.” – Robert Musil
The Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Washington DC, Maya Lin
Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial, Washington DC, Frank Gehry
National World War II Memorial, Washington DC,
Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, Berlin, Peter Eisenman
Monument vs monumental vs memorial
Mariana Griswold van Rensselaer
National September 11 Memorial & Museum, New York City, Michael Arad
New Yorker cover, “Memorial Plaza,” 7-14 July 2014, Adrian Tomine
Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn
“Death, Grief and Mourning in Contemporary Britain,” – Geoffrey Gorer, 1965
Sedlec Ossuary, Kutna Hora, Czech Republic
“The Hour of Our Death” – Philippe Ariès, 1977
Père Lachaise Cemetery, Paris
Brooklyn Strand, repurposing the Brooklyn War Memorial as a conduit to New York City’s park system
Monuments that “switch on” only when they’re blown up or taken down
Robert E. Lee Monument, Richmond
White contractors wouldn’t remove Confederate statues. So a Black man did it.
“Kickstarter urbanism” and the crowd-funded monument
“The Great War and Modern Memory” – Paul Fussell
Texas State Capital Grounds, Austin
Outro: “Monuments for a Dead Century,” by The Boo Radleys
