Public Pantheons in Revolutionary Europe

The role of historical memory in modern culture and the politics of commemoration have become of immense importance to historians over recent years. The monumental enterprise led by Pierre Nora in France, Les Lieux de Mémoire ’ and its German counterpart, the Deutsche Erinnerungsorte edited by Étienne François and Hagen Schulze, explore how collective, historical memories are constructed and contested at the same time. What these constructions and cultural conflicts say about politics, the relationship of the social elites to civil society and the shaping of identities are among the reasons for the keen interest in this subject. Eveline Bouwers’s book makes a fascinating, richly-documented and well-written contribution to this area of debate. Deploying impressive, even exhaustive, archival research in Britain, France, Italy and Germany, Bouwers explores the culture of remembrance in these four countries within the context of political upheaval, European war and its legacy of instability from the 1790s until the early 1840s. She focuses on Napoleon’s imperial Pantheon in Paris, Antonio Canova’s Pantheon to ‘illustrious Italians’ in Rome, the parliament-sponsored ‘pantheon’ to war heroes and politicians in St Paul’s Cathedral and Westminster Abbey, and the Walhalla at Regensberg in Bavaria. The comparative dimension of this book is, in itself, a great achievement, making it truly western European in its scope

Archaeology · Art history · Context (archaeology · Economic history · German · Parliament · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Spanish Civil War · Classics · Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis · History · Law · Religious Tourism and Spaces