Prisioneros de la historia

Keith Lowe, the acclaimed author of such important books as Wild Continent, observed that monuments were being torn down around the world as an expression of political protest and began to wonder what monuments built to commemorate World War II say about us today. Focusing on them, he delves into the terrible contest of 1939-1945 to inquire to what extent he is still present among us. He examines all aspects of war, from victors to vanquished, from heroes to villains, from apocalypse to rebuilding after devastation. He focuses on twenty-five monuments, including 'The Motherland Calls You', in Russia; the Monument to the Marine Corps, in the United States; the Monument to the Fallen, in Italy; the Monument to the Victims of the Nanking Massacre, in China; the Atomic Bomb Dome, in Hiroshima; the Yad Vashem Balcony, in Jerusalem, and the Europe Liberation Route from London to Berlin. Unsurprisingly, he finds that each country views war in a different way. In the monuments erected in the United States, Lowe perceives triumph and patriotic veneration of heroes. In Europe, monuments are gloomy, ambiguous and very often dedicated to victims. In these different international visions of war, Lowe captures the expressions in stone and metal of the feelings that still imprison us today with his immutable postures. However, today's world is changing at an unprecedented rate, and monuments erected decades, or even centuries, no longer represent the values ??we hold dear today. Prisoners of History from the 21st century analyzes a 20th century war that still haunts us today.