Memory and Monument Wars in American Cities

This book is about the ways U.S. cities have responded to some of the most pressing political, cultural, racial issues of our time as agentic, remembering actors. Our case studies include New York Citys securitized remembrances at the National September 11 Memorial and Museum; Charlottesvilles Confederate monument controversies in the wake of the 2017 Unite the Right Rally; and Montgomerys double consciousness at the National Memorial for Peace and Justice and Legacy Museum. By tracing the genealogies that can be found across three contested cityscapesNew York, Charlottesville, and Montgomerythis book opens up new vistas for research for communication studies as it shows how cities are agentic actors that can wage war on urban landscapes as massive actor-networks struggling to remember (and forget). With the rise of sanctuary cities against nativistic immigration policies, invasions from white supremacists and neo-Nazis objecting to the great replacement, and rhizomic uprisings of Black Lives Matter protests in response to lethal police force against persons of color, this timely book speaks to the emergent realities of how cities have become battlegrounds in Americas continuing cultural wars.