Prisoners of History

what happens when our values change, but what has been set in stone does not? Bestselling historian Keith Lowe gives a bold new history of our lives since World War Two, told through the stories of our most powerful monuments.

When World War Two ended, its monuments were built to tell the story. From Berlin to Moscow, Seoul to Hiroshima, countries reckoned with the impact of the war and what was to be enshrined in national memory. Today, many of these memorials remain the most visited sites in the world. Some attract millions of people every year.

In Prisoners of History, the award-winning Keith Lowe gives a bold new account of the way the world reacted in the wake of World War Two, and how the narratives countries told solidified – for better or for worse – to shape their national identities of today.

Monuments are built to commemorate the past, but we can be held hostage by bad history. Following the stories of different countries around the globe, Lowe questions our relationship with the monument and the symbol. Why is Russia still building victory monuments at a prolific rate for a war now seventy years over? Why, despite loathing his legacy, does the town of Mussolini’s final resting place still honour his tomb like a shrine?

Challenging the known wisdom, Keith Lowe offers a powerful and perspective-changing work on the faults in national memory, and how acts of remembrance can distort our history.