America in the Age of the Titans

Sean Dennis Cashman is the author of various popular books on American history, most recently the third edition of his classic America in the Gilded Age, also available from NYU Press.

""Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan" is a primer on getting to know our city's monuments. . . . Each entry has a uniform structure. It contains a photo, vital stats (year dedicated, size, materials), an 'About the Sculpture' section, and an 'About the Subject' section, as well as a carefully chosen boxed quotation culled from an old book or newspaper that pertains to the subject. . . . "Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan" is well written, well researched, well-thought-out, funny, and often refreshingly original, and will help any interested New Yorker know about the wondrous monuments that dot the city." -"New York Sun", "[Durante's] guidebook is a perfect walking-tour accompaniment to help New Yorkers and visitors find, identify and better appreciate statues famous and obscure (honoring, among others, the 'father of gynecology' and the general who had an unremarkable military and business career but composed 'Taps, ' the bugle call). . . . Durante winsomely places 54 monuments in historical and artistic perspective. We learn that a trumpet is an allegory for announcing fame, that the monument to Admiral Farragut in Madison Square Park altered the course of American sculpture, that the figure with the winged hat atop Grand Central Terminal is Mercury and that the statue of Atlas at Rockefeller Center was reviled when it was unveiled in 1937 because it supposedly resembled Mussolini. Let's hope Ms. Durante follows up in the other four boroughs." -"The New York Times", "[Durante] tackles her task in the manner of a walking tour. . . . The language of the book is friendly and chatty, as if the author were in front of you, conducting an on-site lecture. . . . The purpose of the book is to encourage people to go and see the wealth of outdoor sculpture in Manhattan, and the book treats this purpose with the enthusiasm the subjects deserve." -"The Art Book", "Anyone whose curiosity has ever been piqued by the peculiar mixture of historical statues that ornament the grounds of Central Park will find "Outdoor Monuments" by Dianne Durante a satisfying read. . . . The entries provide background on each work's origin, explaining, for example, how a statue of the medieval Polish king Jagiello came to be in New York alongside more predictable allegorical and American patriotic figures. A brief history of the subject is also provided, including enough lively anecdotes and obscure facts to entice all readers." -"Sculpture Magazine", "A thorough, geographically organized look at many important and interesting monuments that most people either overlook or see without appreciating their meaning or history." -"Notable Book Review",