In Dachau; Auschwitz; Yad Vashem; and thousands of other locations throughout the world; memorials to the Holocaust are erected to commemorate its victims and its significance. This fascinating work by James E. Young examines Holocaust monuments and museums in Europe; Israel; and America; exploring how every nation remembers the Holocaust according to its own traditions; ideals; and experiences; and how these memorials reflect their place in contemporary aesthetic and architectural discourse. The result is a groundbreaking study of Holocaust memory; public art; and their fusion in contemporary life.Among the issues Young discusses are: how memorials suppress as much as they commemorate; how museums tell as much about their makers as about events; the differences between memorials conceived by victims and by victimizers; and the political uses and abuses of officially cast memory. Young describes; for example; Germany's "counter monuments;" one of which was designed to disappear over time; and the Polish memorials that commemorate the whole of Polish destruction through the figure of its murdered Jewish part. He compares European museums and monuments that focus primarily on the internment and killing process with Israeli memorials that include portrayals of Jewish life before and after the destruction. In his concluding chapters; he finds that American Holocaust memorials are guided no less by distinctly American ideals; such as liberty and pluralism.Interweaving graceful prose and arresting photographs; the book is eloquent testimony to the way varied cultures and nations commemorate an era that breeds guilt; shame; pain; and amnesia; but rarely pride. By reinvigorating these memorials with the stories of their origins; Young highlights the ever-changing life of memory over its seemingly frozen face in the landscape.
#1107702 in Books 1973-09-10Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 8.00 x 1.00 x 5.00l; .90 #File Name: 0300016476430 pages
Review
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful. the essential book on the Kievan Rus' in EnglishBy Michael C. WalkerOverall a very good introduction to the history the Kievan Rus'--and indeed; the standard history thereof since its first publication way back in the 1940s. A bit dry in places; but it contains a real wealth of information presented in a narrative that for whatever it lacks at times in compelling intrigue does provide the core details of a dazzling array of plots; bitter fights for power; and other drama of princes and their factions who are fighting for the control of a growing domain. This book also however presents a decent amount of information on daily life: agriculture; religion and the like. It would be possible to read about three books in Russian and get the same information but also a bit more and with greater diversity of viewpoint as the Vernadsky book is a single-author volume; but for an English-language introduction to the Kievan Rus'; this can't be beat; really.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. it looks very good.By Stepan GambatiJust finishing the first part of Florinsky; will get to this one soon. Again; it looks very good.1 of 2 people found the following review helpful. Kievan Russia for everyoneBy M. A. SeifterThis is a terrific book. Accessible to the general reader; as to the scholar; Vernadsky's narrative reveals the work of an accomplished master of academic scholarship; who can make Kievan Russia; from the ninth to the thirteenth century; completely alive to the modern reader. he knows what to include; and what to omit-something sadly lacking in those professors writing bloated and unreadable textbooks for college audiences today. I would recommend this book for anyone interested in early Russian history.
