Empty Pedestals - (Reading the American Landscape) by Kofi Boone & M Elen Deming (Hardcover)

About the Book

"Empty Pedestals: Countering Confederate Monuments through Public Design uses a design perspective to explore how monuments to the Confederacy speak to regionalism, racist agendas, and residual pain. Many public designers and artists engaged in the public realm have created innovative projects to replace Confederate monuments, contextualize those that continue to stand, and foster new conversations about history, race, and justice in America. By drawing lessons from these projects and considering the questions that remain, editors Kofi Boone and M. Elen Deming hope to assist design and art educators and students to combat endemic racism and other forms of social division. For well over a century, the endurance of Confederate monuments, street names, and other memorial symbols in the United States has permitted a set of false and oppressive narratives to be defended in the name of 'historic preservation.' Their continuing presence maintains symbolic forms of systemic oppression, exclusionary policies and practices, and erasure of the stories, memories, and values of marginalized communities in the South. While many Confederate monuments have been removed since 2017, those removals comprise only a small percentage of the overall symbolic presence of the Confederate past in the American South. In Empty Pedestals, Boone and Deming strive to find new frameworks and shared solutions for the issues that continue to trouble American social landscapes. Above all, the book lifts up the stories of communities that have confronted Confederate monuments and devised solutions that stand up to, and apart from, old mythologies. When and if oppressive symbols like Confederate monuments are determined not to be worth preserving, the public needs to understand what kind of design alternatives may offer healing in public spaces, healthier social discourse, and stronger community resilience"--

Book Synopsis

Empty Pedestals uses a design perspective to explore how monuments to the Confederacy speak to regionalism, racist political agendas, and residual collective pain. Many designers and artists working in the public realm have created innovative projects to replace Confederate memorials, contextualize those that still stand, and foster new conversations about history, race, and justice in America. By drawing lessons from these initiatives and considering the questions that remain, editors Kofi Boone and M. Elen Deming hope to assist educators and students in combating endemic prejudice and other forms of social division.

For more than a century, the endurance of Confederate monuments, street names, and other memorials in the United States has permitted proponents to establish false and oppressive arguments in defense of so-called historic preservation. The continued presence of these objects maintains symbolic forms of systemic injustice, exclusionary policies and practices, and erasure of the stories, memories, and values of marginalized populations in the American South. While many of these monuments have been taken down since 2017, they account for only a small percentage of the overall number of Confederate relics on public display.

Boone and Deming, along with the volume's fourteen contributors, strive to elevate novel frameworks and shared solutions for the issues that continue to trouble American cultural landscapes. Above all, Empty Pedestals lifts up the voices of people who have confronted hateful narratives and devised strategies that stand up to, and apart from, old mythologies. If and when oppressive symbols such as Confederate monuments are permanently eliminated, design alternatives such as those presented here may offer healing in shared spaces, healthier social discourse, and stronger community resilience.

Review Quotes

"Empty Pedestals grapple with past and present to show how the possibility of--and, in effect, the reality of--commemorative landscapes shaped by the subjugation and oppression of Black people can be "un-fixed" or undone. . . . As monuments are removed and empty pedestals are left standing, the built environment takes on a new patina--one of justice and hope. . . . Highly recommended."--CHOICE

"Empty Pedestals is a profound collection of essays exploring the presence of polarizing monuments and their impact on the public psyche. The book should be read by all who desire to understand the qualities of civic space and new approaches to commemorative landscapes founded in acknowledgment of our shared but challenging history."--Diane Jones Allen, professor and director of the landscape architecture program at the University of Texas at Arlington

"Symbols matter. They can inspire us or challenge us. Empty Pedestals is an in-depth examination of how symbols, and the spaces they occupy, relate to our communities, and in turn, how communities have responded to them. This engaging book captures the zeitgeist of our nation's recent reckoning with our complex history."--Scott Hutcheson, executive director, E Pluribus Unum

"Through the diverse and transdisciplinary lenses of the essay authors, Kofi Boone and M. Elen Deming's excellent excavation of the meanings and narratives surrounding Confederate monuments shows that 'what you see--and what they mean--depends very much on who you are.' Importantly, the book aims to (re)center public design initiatives in local and historical contexts to help reclaim public spaces and their narratives."--Julian Agyeman, professor of urban and environmental policy and planning at Tufts University

About the Author

Kofi Boone is the Joseph D. Moore Distinguished Professor and University Faculty Scholar in the Department of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning at North Carolina State University. He works in the overlap between landscape architecture and environmental justice, with specializations in democratic design and cultural landscapes.

M. Elen Deming is professor of landscape architecture and director of the Doctor of Design program at the College of Design at North Carolina State University. She is an essayist and editor who considers how society shapes, and is in turn shaped by, its cultural landscapes.