In engaging and accessible prose, Commemorating Defeat tells the story of how defeated nations in the late nineteenth century managed to transform military failure into cultural victory, through an innovative new sculptural monument that went viral and migrated across continents. This outstanding transnational study will fascinate readers interested in monumental politics, international diplomacy, and historical myth-making. Kirk Savage, William S. Dietrich II Professor of History of Art and Architecture, University of Pittsburgh
In this remarkable book, Nicholas Parkinson compiles an original corpus of monuments to defeat and lost causes, which he posits as a sculptural, commemorative, and heritage category, and analyzes as a transnational culture. His approach is unprecedented, and his results are groundbreaking. Bertrand Tillier, Professor of the History of Heritage, University of Paris 1-Panthéon Sorbonne
A compelling and meticulously researched study, this work offers a truly international and transnational perspective on the construction of cultures of defeat. Drawing on an impressive range of sources from across four continents, the author brings together diverse case studies in a persuasive and coherent synthesis. The result is scholarship of remarkable breadth and depthhighly relevant, original, and certain to resonate within nationalism and memory studies. Rasmus Glenthøj, Professor of History, University of Southern Denmark
