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Mother Land

Summarizing Matthew Fishbane in Tablet · Published Monday, May 22, 2017
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JL;DR SUMMARY Matthew Fishbane reflects on the complexity of historical remembrance within American and Jewish contexts, using the example of Confederate statues in Charlottesville. A way out west there was a fella, fella I want to tell you about, fella by the name of Jeff Lebowski. At least, that was the handle his lovin' parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself. This Lebowski, he called himself the Dude. Now, Dude, that's a name no one would self-apply where I come from. But then, there was a lot about the Dude that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. And a lot about where he lived, likewise. But then again, maybe that's why I found the place s'durned innarestin'.

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Tags

Memory  Charlottesville  Robert E. Lee  Remembrance  Richard Spencer  Memorials  Historical Interpretation  Confederate Statues  James E. Young  Historical Monuments 

Places mentioned

New York, United States
"On Mothers Day, the New York Daily News ran its normal mix of tabloid tales."
Charlottesville, Virginia, United States
"But he and his acolytes were responding to recent events in Charlottesville, where a group of peopleemboldened by the success of efforts after the 2015 Charleston church shooting to remove the Confederate battle flag from the South Carolina statehouse and a statue of President of the Confederate States of America Jefferson Davis from New Orleans, among other revisions and erasures to the street furniture of the Southfound the Confederate general and his military commander, Stonewall Jackson (in a nearby park), to be also in need of relegation to historys dustbin."
Richmond, Virginia, United States
"measuring Lees garments and Travellers skeleton in museums in Richmond and Washington only to find that Shrady had the proportions exact."
Washington, Washington DC, United States
"measuring Lees garments and Travellers skeleton in museums in Richmond and Washington only to find that Shrady had the proportions exact."
Boston, Massachusetts, United States
"My father is from Boston, and he said that moving to Charlottesville, four short years after the Civil Rights Act had finally outlawed segregated water fountains, was like moving to Mars."
New Orleans, Louisiana, United States
"to remove the Confederate battle flag from the South Carolina statehouse and a statue of President of the Confederate States of America Jefferson Davis from New Orleans, among other revisions and erasures to the street furniture of the South"
South Carolina, United States
"to remove the Confederate battle flag from the South Carolina statehouse and a statue of President of the Confederate States of America Jefferson Davis from New Orleans, among other revisions and erasures to the street furniture of the South"
Washington DC, United States
"which came to occupy the next 20 years of Shradys life and stands now as one of D.C.s great sculptural landmarks, dedicated two weeks after the artists death in 1922."
Kentucky, United States
"and that Charlottesville, in a very Charlottesvillian brand of provincialism, should be, as the host of Mr. Jeffersons home and college, on par with Washington and New Yorkall stops, after all, on the Southern Crescent rail line that connected New Orleans to Penn Station in the Reconstruction."
Brooklyn, New York, United States
"and first president is tricorned and cloaked against the winter cold, his steed bowed in obeisance. He surveys his now-invisible 10,000 men, a quarter of whom perished before the spring of 1778. The vitality and quiet contemplation of this work surely led to Shradys second commission, the Ulysses S. Grant memorial at the United States Capitol, which came to occupy the next 20 years of Shradys life and stands now as one of D.C.s great sculptural landmarks, dedicated two weeks after the artists death in 1922."
Williamsburg, New York, United States
"Shradys first big commission was for a statue of George Washington at Valley Forge, which stands atop a monumental granite base across from Peter Luger Steak House in Williamsburg, the centerpiece of Brooklyns Continental Army Plaza."
Penn Station, New York, United States
"and that Charlottesville, in a very Charlottesvillian brand of provincialism, should be, as the host of Mr. Jeffersons home and college, on par with Washington and New Yorkall stops, after all, on the Southern Crescent rail line that connected New Orleans to Penn Station in the Reconstruction."
Braunau Am Inn, Upper Austria, Austria
"the same issues as those confronted by the small Austrian village of Braunau Am Inn, where Hitler was born."
Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, United States
"Shradys first big commission was for a statue of George Washington at Valley Forge, which stands atop a monumental granite base across from Peter Luger Steak House in Williamsburg, the centerpiece of Brooklyns Continental Army Plaza."

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