...Framed by the removal of the Alfred Mouton statue in Lafayette, Louisiana, this introduction defines the meaning of reading in the volume, arguing that Confederate monuments require interpretation because they exceed their literal denotations. It suggests that readers harness...

...This chapter illustrates the rise and spread of Confederate monuments at the local level by focusing how they were promoted and disseminated in print. It also shows how the lasting effects of this cultural work influence the current historical moment and, as such, makes a transhistorical argument...

... the past, this chapter raises important questions about Confederate monuments and the interdependent legacies of slavery and settler colonialism across the United States, not just in the South. To conclude, it meditates on monuments' temporality, with the absent history of the blank marker emblematizing...

...What happens when Confederate monuments fall into the hands of predominantly Black urban communities who have both the desire and the means to resist them? Framed by the author’s reflection of her past and recent engagements with the Confederate monument in her hometown of Florence, Alabama...

... with the contemporary fight to preserve Confederate monuments. It draws particular attention to these stakes as characterized by those who would most violently, in prose and in person, defend them. Reading white nationalist media, like The Daily Stormer, against neo-Confederate fiction, like Gregory...

...This chapter outlines a close reading assignment in which students researched the history and reception of the local Confederate monument in Sherman, Texas. This place-based assignment can be built into any number of US literature courses-surveys, topics courses, and seminars-and adapted to any...

...This collection of essays written by literary and cultural critics addresses the urgent and vital need for scholars, educators, and the general public to be able to read and interpret literal and cultural Confederate monuments pervading life in the contemporary United States. Engaging many...