Title: Fallen Idols
Author: von Tunzelmann, Alex
Published by: Headline Publishing Group
Year: 2021
Date reviewed: 11.24
ISBN: 978 1 4722 8189 0 (eISBN)
Kindle version. Hardback ISBN: 978 1 4722 8187 6

Written in the wake of an outbreak of statue-toppling driven in part by the death of George Floyd in 2020 and the spread of the Black Lives Matter movement, historian Alex von Tunzelmann (‘AvT’) presents case studies of 12 examples of statues which have been thrown down (and in some cases restored, then thrown down again) in the past two and a half centuries. Her statues range from King George III in America in the 18th century to Saddam Hussein in modern times.

The list includes some thoroughly unpleasant people like Trujillo in the Dominican Republic and King Leopold II of Belgium, the brutal colonialist of the Congo. Others are controversial even now: Robert E Lee of the Confederacy,  Bristol slave-owner Edward Colston are still dividing opinion.

AvT makes the case that statues of ‘Great Men’ – and public statuary is almost exclusively of white men – have been idolised, ridiculed and removed either by force or general consent ever since they were first erected by classical civilisations. It’s nothing new; ‘wokeness’ (whatever that means) doesn’t come into it. She presents four common arguments deployed by the backers of the status quo against would-be topplers and explains why on closer analysis none have any merits: “The Erasure of History”, “A Man of His Time”, “The Importance of Law and Order” and “A Slippery Slope”.

Overall the book is informative, thought-provoking and fun, which is a good enough reason for reading it!