The Statue Of Liberty: A Transatlantic Story (icons Of America)
by Mr. Edward Berenson /
2012 / English / EPUB
5.8 MB Download
A universally recognized icon, the Statue of Liberty is perhaps
the most beloved of all American symbols. Yet no one living in
1885, when the crated monument arrived in New York Harbor, could
have foreseen the central place the Statue of Liberty would come
to occupy in the American imagination. With the particular
insights of a cultural historian and scholar of French history,
Edward Berenson tells the little-known stories of the statue’s
improbable beginnings, transatlantic connections, and the
changing meanings it has held for each successive American
generation.
A universally recognized icon, the Statue of Liberty is perhaps
the most beloved of all American symbols. Yet no one living in
1885, when the crated monument arrived in New York Harbor, could
have foreseen the central place the Statue of Liberty would come
to occupy in the American imagination. With the particular
insights of a cultural historian and scholar of French history,
Edward Berenson tells the little-known stories of the statue’s
improbable beginnings, transatlantic connections, and the
changing meanings it has held for each successive American
generation.
Berenson begins with the French intellectuals who decided for
their own domestic political reasons to pay monumental tribute to
American liberty. Without any official backing, they designed the
statue, announced the gift, and determined where it should go.
The initial American response, not surprisingly, was less than
enthusiastic, and the project had to overcome countless
difficulties before the statue was at last unveiled to the public
in New York Harbor in 1886. The trials of its inception and
construction, however, are only half of the story. Berenson shows
that the statue’s symbolically indistinct, neoclassical form has
allowed Americans to interpret its meaning in diverse ways: as
representing the emancipation of the slaves, Tocqueville's idea
of orderly liberty, opportunity for "huddled masses," and, in the
years since 9/11, the freedom and resilience of New York City and
the United States in the face of terror.
Berenson begins with the French intellectuals who decided for
their own domestic political reasons to pay monumental tribute to
American liberty. Without any official backing, they designed the
statue, announced the gift, and determined where it should go.
The initial American response, not surprisingly, was less than
enthusiastic, and the project had to overcome countless
difficulties before the statue was at last unveiled to the public
in New York Harbor in 1886. The trials of its inception and
construction, however, are only half of the story. Berenson shows
that the statue’s symbolically indistinct, neoclassical form has
allowed Americans to interpret its meaning in diverse ways: as
representing the emancipation of the slaves, Tocqueville's idea
of orderly liberty, opportunity for "huddled masses," and, in the
years since 9/11, the freedom and resilience of New York City and
the United States in the face of terror.