Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Fallen Idols: Twelve Statues That Made History
    Fallen Idols: Twelve Statues That Made History
    Fallen Idols: Twelve Statues That Made History
    Audiobook9 hours

    Fallen Idols: Twelve Statues That Made History

    Written by Alex von Tunzelmann

    Narrated by Kristin Atherton

    4/5

    ()

    Switch to ebook

    About this audiobook

    An Economist Best Book of the Year

    In this timely and lively look at the act of toppling monuments, the popular historian and author of Blood and Sand explores the vital question of how a society remembers—and confronts—the past.

    In 2020, history came tumbling down. From the US and the UK to Belgium, New Zealand, and Bangladesh, Black Lives Matter protesters defaced, and in some cases, hauled down statues of Confederate icons, slaveholders, and imperialists. General Robert E. Lee, head of the Confederate Army, was covered in graffiti in Richmond, Virginia. Edward Colston, a member of Parliament and slave trader, was knocked off his plinth in Bristol, England, and hurled into the harbor. Statues of Christopher Columbus were toppled in Minnesota, burned and thrown into a lake in Virginia, and beheaded in Massachusetts. Belgian King Leopold II was set on fire in Antwerp and doused in red paint in Ghent. Winston Churchill’s monument in London was daubed with the word “racist.” As these iconic effigies fell, the backlash was swift and intense.

    But as the past three hundred years have shown, history is not erased when statues are removed. If anything, Alex von Tunzelmann reminds us, it is made.

    Exploring the rise and fall of twelve famous, yet now controversial statues, she takes us on a fascinating global historical tour around North America, Western and Eastern Europe, Latin America and Asia, filled with larger than life characters and dramatic stories. Von Tunzelmann reveals that statues are not historical records but political statements and distinguishes between statuary—the representation of “virtuous” individuals, usually “Great Men”—and other forms of sculpture, public art, and memorialization. Nobody wants to get rid of all memorials. But Fallen Idols asks: have statues had their day?

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateOct 19, 2021
    ISBN9780063081703
    Author

    Alex von Tunzelmann

    Alex von Tunzelmann lives in London. She read history at University College, Oxford, and afterwards worked as a researcher on books for authors including Jeremy Paxman, Felicity Lawrence, John Kay and Alison Wolf. Her first book, Indian Summer, was published by Simon & Schuster in 2007. 

    Related to Fallen Idols

    Related audiobooks

    Social History For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      A Year in Reading: Sarah Thankam Mathews

      Dec 18, 2020

      By May I was clenching my teeth so hard when I slept that it eventually cracked a filling. The post A Year in Reading: Sarah Thankam Mathews appeared first on The Millions.

      4 min read

    • Article

      Fallen idols

      Jun 11, 2021

      Fallen idols
      15 min read

    • Article

      Robert C. Koehler: Globally Uprooting A Racist Past

      Jun 11, 2020

      By Robert C. Koehler “This was not an attack on history. This is history. It is one of those rare historic moments whose arrival means things can never go back to how they were.” And the toppled statue of a 17th-century slave trader, now at the botto

      4 min read

    • Article

      Robert C. Koehler: Globally Uprooting A Racist Past

      Jun 11, 2020

      By Robert C. Koehler “This was not an attack on history. This is history. It is one of those rare historic moments whose arrival means things can never go back to how they were.” And the toppled statue of a 17th-century slave trader, now at the botto

      4 min read

    • Article

      Robert C. Koehler: Globally Uprooting A Racist Past

      Jun 11, 2020

      By Robert C. Koehler “This was not an attack on history. This is history. It is one of those rare historic moments whose arrival means things can never go back to how they were.” And the toppled statue of a 17th-century slave trader, now at the botto

      4 min read

    • Article

      Robert C. Koehler: Globally Uprooting A Racist Past

      Jun 11, 2020

      By Robert C. Koehler “This was not an attack on history. This is history. It is one of those rare historic moments whose arrival means things can never go back to how they were.” And the toppled statue of a 17th-century slave trader, now at the botto

      4 min read

    • Article

      Robert C. Koehler: Globally Uprooting A Racist Past

      Jun 11, 2020

      By Robert C. Koehler “This was not an attack on history. This is history. It is one of those rare historic moments whose arrival means things can never go back to how they were.” And the toppled statue of a 17th-century slave trader, now at the botto

      4 min read

    • Article

      Robert C. Koehler: Globally Uprooting A Racist Past

      Jun 11, 2020

      By Robert C. Koehler “This was not an attack on history. This is history. It is one of those rare historic moments whose arrival means things can never go back to how they were.” And the toppled statue of a 17th-century slave trader, now at the botto

      4 min read

    • Article

      Robert C. Koehler: Globally Uprooting A Racist Past

      Jun 11, 2020

      By Robert C. Koehler “This was not an attack on history. This is history. It is one of those rare historic moments whose arrival means things can never go back to how they were.” And the toppled statue of a 17th-century slave trader, now at the botto

      4 min read

    • Article

      Robert C. Koehler: Globally Uprooting A Racist Past

      Jun 11, 2020

      By Robert C. Koehler “This was not an attack on history. This is history. It is one of those rare historic moments whose arrival means things can never go back to how they were.” And the toppled statue of a 17th-century slave trader, now at the botto

      4 min read

    • Article

      Robert C. Koehler: Globally Uprooting A Racist Past

      Jun 11, 2020

      By Robert C. Koehler “This was not an attack on history. This is history. It is one of those rare historic moments whose arrival means things can never go back to how they were.” And the toppled statue of a 17th-century slave trader, now at the botto

      4 min read

    • Article

      Robert C. Koehler: Globally Uprooting A Racist Past

      Jun 11, 2020

      By Robert C. Koehler “This was not an attack on history. This is history. It is one of those rare historic moments whose arrival means things can never go back to how they were.” And the toppled statue of a 17th-century slave trader, now at the botto

      4 min read

    • Article

      Robert C. Koehler: Globally Uprooting A Racist Past

      Jun 11, 2020

      By Robert C. Koehler “This was not an attack on history. This is history. It is one of those rare historic moments whose arrival means things can never go back to how they were.” And the toppled statue of a 17th-century slave trader, now at the botto

      4 min read

    • Article

      Robert C. Koehler: Globally Uprooting A Racist Past

      Jun 11, 2020

      By Robert C. Koehler “This was not an attack on history. This is history. It is one of those rare historic moments whose arrival means things can never go back to how they were.” And the toppled statue of a 17th-century slave trader, now at the botto

      4 min read

    • Article

      Robert C. Koehler: Globally Uprooting A Racist Past

      Jun 11, 2020

      By Robert C. Koehler “This was not an attack on history. This is history. It is one of those rare historic moments whose arrival means things can never go back to how they were.” And the toppled statue of a 17th-century slave trader, now at the botto

      4 min read

    • Article

      Robert C. Koehler: Globally Uprooting A Racist Past

      Jun 11, 2020

      By Robert C. Koehler “This was not an attack on history. This is history. It is one of those rare historic moments whose arrival means things can never go back to how they were.” And the toppled statue of a 17th-century slave trader, now at the botto

      4 min read

    • Article

      Robert C. Koehler: Globally Uprooting A Racist Past

      Jun 11, 2020

      By Robert C. Koehler “This was not an attack on history. This is history. It is one of those rare historic moments whose arrival means things can never go back to how they were.” And the toppled statue of a 17th-century slave trader, now at the botto

      4 min read

    • Article

      Robert C. Koehler: Globally Uprooting A Racist Past

      Jun 11, 2020

      By Robert C. Koehler “This was not an attack on history. This is history. It is one of those rare historic moments whose arrival means things can never go back to how they were.” And the toppled statue of a 17th-century slave trader, now at the botto

      4 min read

    • Article

      Robert C. Koehler: Globally Uprooting A Racist Past

      Jun 11, 2020

      By Robert C. Koehler “This was not an attack on history. This is history. It is one of those rare historic moments whose arrival means things can never go back to how they were.” And the toppled statue of a 17th-century slave trader, now at the botto

      4 min read

    • Article

      Robert C. Koehler: Globally Uprooting A Racist Past

      Jun 11, 2020

      By Robert C. Koehler “This was not an attack on history. This is history. It is one of those rare historic moments whose arrival means things can never go back to how they were.” And the toppled statue of a 17th-century slave trader, now at the botto

      4 min read

    • Article

      Robert C. Koehler: Globally Uprooting A Racist Past

      Jun 11, 2020

      By Robert C. Koehler “This was not an attack on history. This is history. It is one of those rare historic moments whose arrival means things can never go back to how they were.” And the toppled statue of a 17th-century slave trader, now at the botto

      4 min read

    • Article

      Robert C. Koehler: Globally Uprooting A Racist Past

      Jun 11, 2020

      By Robert C. Koehler “This was not an attack on history. This is history. It is one of those rare historic moments whose arrival means things can never go back to how they were.” And the toppled statue of a 17th-century slave trader, now at the botto

      4 min read

    • Article

      Robert C. Koehler: Globally Uprooting A Racist Past

      Jun 11, 2020

      By Robert C. Koehler “This was not an attack on history. This is history. It is one of those rare historic moments whose arrival means things can never go back to how they were.” And the toppled statue of a 17th-century slave trader, now at the botto

      4 min read

    • Article

      Robert C. Koehler: Globally Uprooting A Racist Past

      Jun 11, 2020

      By Robert C. Koehler “This was not an attack on history. This is history. It is one of those rare historic moments whose arrival means things can never go back to how they were.” And the toppled statue of a 17th-century slave trader, now at the botto

      4 min read

    • Article

      Robert C. Koehler: Globally Uprooting A Racist Past

      Jun 11, 2020

      By Robert C. Koehler “This was not an attack on history. This is history. It is one of those rare historic moments whose arrival means things can never go back to how they were.” And the toppled statue of a 17th-century slave trader, now at the botto

      4 min read

    • Article

      Robert C. Koehler: Globally Uprooting A Racist Past

      Jun 11, 2020

      By Robert C. Koehler “This was not an attack on history. This is history. It is one of those rare historic moments whose arrival means things can never go back to how they were.” And the toppled statue of a 17th-century slave trader, now at the botto

      4 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Fallen Idols

    4/5

    17 ratings1 review

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      I enjoyed this book and the case studies presented by the author.