Over the past three years the world has witnessed the huge social and media discussions of
what figures from the past one should or should not celebrate and commemorate with a statue.
The recent removal of the statue of infamous slave transporter Edward Colston in Bristol still
resonates in the UK as debates rage on race inequality politics and gender. The conversations
demonstrations and petitions for the removal of statues to men and women whose lives and
careers are in question is not a new phenomenon but one that has been going on for
generations. Only with the arrival of online media outlets has it now come to the fore in 'real
time'. Fallen Idols will be a nuanced and constructive appraisal of the current issues facing
many towns and cities as they struggle to decide how the commemoration and adoration of statues
that they hold dear (or despise) can be resolved. Von Tunzelmann focuses on key statues across
the USA the UK Africa and to the old USSR to show the reader how the march of history can be
unkind to leaders we sometime venerate at one point and then cast aside at another - what they
achieved why their memory was celebrated in stone and why they were then removed. A hugely
informative read supported with line-drawn illustrations of the statues chosen - that will
educate and entertain in equal measure.
