Kirk Savage, Introduction of 'Standing Soldiers, Kneeling Slaves: Race, War, and Monument in Nineteenth-century America'

Public monuments were meant to yield resolution and consensus, not to prolong conflict. The impulse behind the public monument was an impulse to mold history into its rightful pattern. ... Even now, to commemorate is to seek historical closure, to draw together the various strands of meaning present in a speech or a monument. ... Yet in choosing to remember "historical" events or heroes we still hope to plunge them into a past secured against the vicissitudes of the present. (4)

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학술적으로 훌륭한 책은 서문만 봐도 티가 확 난다. 문화사의 매력.