A field guide to the memorials, museums, and practices that commemorate white supremacy in the United States-and how to reimagine a more deeply shared cultural infrastructure for the future.
Cultural infrastructure has been designed to maintain structures of inequality, and while it doesn't seem to be explicitly about race, it often is. Blunt Instruments helps readers identify, contextualize, and name elements of our everyday landscapes and cultural practices that are designed to seem benign or natural but which, in fact, work tirelessly to tell us vital stories about who we are, how we came to be, and who belongs.
Examining landmark moments such as the erection of the first American museum and Colin Kaepernick's kneeling pledge of allegiance, historian Kristin Hass explores the complicated histories of sites of cultural infrastructure, such as:
the American Museum of Natural History
the Bridge to Freedom in Selma
the Washington Monument
Mount Auburn Cemetery
Kehinde Wiley's 2019 sculpture Rumors of War
the Victory Highway
the Alamo Cenotaph
With sharp analysis and a broad lens, Hass makes the undeniable case that understanding what cultural infrastructure is, and the deep and broad impact that it has, is essential to understanding how structures of inequity are maintained and how they might be dismantled. Introduction: White Lies Matters
Section I: Memorials
Monumental Basics
Chapter One: Memorials: The Lost Cause Won
Memorial Timeline
Pre-1890: A Mixed Bag
1890-1920: The First Memorial Boom
Chapter Two: Memorials: The Lost Cause Keeps Winning
Memorial Timeline
1920-1980: Living Memorials and Dying Cities
1980-2010: The Second Memorial Boom in Three Acts
2010-Present: Tumbling Down and Rising Up
Section II: Museums Museum Basics
Chapter Three: Museums: White Temples Emerged
Museum Timeline
Pre-1870: Cabinet of Curiosities
1870-1940: The First Golden Age of American Museums
