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The past is weaponised in culture wars and cynically edited by those who wish to impose their ideology upon the physical spaces around us. Holocaust deniers use details of the ruins of the gas chambers Auschwitz to promote their lies: 'No Holes; No Holocaust'. Yet long-standing concepts such as 'authenticity' in heritage are undermined and trivialised by gatekeepers such as UNESCO. At the same, time, opposition to this manipulation is being undermined by cultural ideas that prioritise memory and impressions over history and facts.
In Monumental Lies, Robert Bevan argues that monuments, architecture and cities are material evidence of history. They are the physical trace of past events, of previous ways of thinking and of politics, economics and values that percolate through to today. When our cities are reshaped as fantasies about the past, when monuments tell lies about who deserves honour or are destroyed and the struggle for justice forgotten, the historical record is being manipulated. When decisions are based on misinformed assumptions about how the built environment influences our behaviour or we are told, falsely, that certain architectural styles are alien to our cities, or when space pretends to be public but is private, or that physical separation is natural, we are being manipulated. There is a growing threat to the material evidence of the truth about history.
We are in serious trouble if we can no longer trust the tangible world around us to tell us the truth. Monumental Lies explores the threats to our understanding of the built environment and how it impacts on our lives, as well as offers solutions to how to combat the ideological manipulations.
Chosen as one of the best Architecture and Design books of 2022 by The Financial Times
List of contents
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER 1 - KILLERS ON EVERY CORNER
CHAPTER 2 STYLE WARS /CULTURE WARS
CHAPTER 3THE ANTI-COSMOPOLITAN
CHAPTER 4: AUTHENTICITY: THE MATERIAL TRUTH
CHAPTER 5 THE MILITARY-HERITAGE COMPLEX
CHAPTER 6 THE EVIDENCE OF HISTORY
CHAPTER 7: WHITE LIES, MISUNDERSTANDINGS, AND WELL-MEANING MYTHS
CHAPTER 8: SUBVERSIVE TRANSFORMATION
CHAPTER 9: WHAT IS TO BE DONE? THE MONUMENTAL AND ITS LIMITS
About the author
Robert Bevan is a journalist, author and heritage consultant. He has been architecture critic for the
London Evening Standard and for newspapers internationally including
The Australian and the
Australian Financial Review. He currently writes for
Bloomberg, Dezeen, The Art Newspaper and the
Times Literary Supplement among others. He is a member of ICOMOS-ICORP and Blue Shield UK, bodies which advise UNESCO on world heritage in conflict.
Summary
How statues, heritage and the built environment have become the battleground for the culture wars
Report
This useful book connects a number of apparently disparate stories about statues and monuments and considers the various ironies of their representation and significance, past and present. A recommended read. Professor Corinne Fowler, author of Green Unpleasant Land
