The Destruction of Memory: Architecture at War Illustrated Edition

by Robert Bevan (Author)

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ISBN-13: 978-1861893192

ISBN-10: 1861893191

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A decimated Shiite shrine in Iraq. The smoking World Trade Center site. The scorched cityscape of 1945 Dresden. Among the most indelible scars left by war is the destroyed landscapes, and such architectural devastation damages far more than mere buildings. Robert Bevan argues herethat shattered buildings are not merely “collateral damage,” but rather calculated acts of cultural annihilation.

From Hitler’s Kristallnacht to the toppling of Saddam Hussein’s statue in the Iraq War, Bevan deftly sifts through military campaigns and their tactics throughout history, and analyzes the cultural impact and catastrophic consequences of architectural destruction. For Bevan, these actions are nothing less than cultural genocide. Ultimately, Bevan forcefully argues for the prosecution of nations that purposely flout established international treaties against destroyed architecture.

A passionate and thought-provoking cri de coeur, The Destruction of Memory raises questions about the costs of war that run deeper than blood and money.

“The idea of a global inheritance seems to have fallen by the wayside and lessons that should have long ago been learned are still being recklessly disregarded. This is what makes Bevan’s book relevant, even urgent: much of the destruction of which it speaks is still under way.”—Financial Times Magazine

“The message of Robert Bevan’s devastating book is that war is about killing cultures, identities and memories as much as it is about killing people and occupying territory.”—Sunday Times

“As Bevan’s fascinating, melancholy book shows, symbolic buildings have long been targeted in and out of war as a particular kind of mnemonic violence against those to whom they are special.”—The Guardian

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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Timely and original. . . . In this indispensable and beautifuly written first international survey of its type, Robert Bevan raise the importance of safeguarding the world's architectural record."

-- Ellen Bennett, Building Design Published On: 2005-07-01

"Mr. Bevan's text is brimming with detail and informed insight regarding the conflicts he covers. . . . Excellent book."

, Art Newspaper Published On: 2006-01-05

"As Bevan's fascinating, melancholy book shows, symbolic buildings have long been targeted in and out of war as a particular kind of mnemonic violence against those to whom they are special."

, Guardian

"The idea of a global inheritance seems to have fallen by the wayside and lessons that should have long ago been learned are still being recklessly disregarded. This is what makes Bevan's book relevant, even urgent: much of the destruction of which it speaks is still under way."

-- Lucy Daniel, Financial Times Magazine Published On: 2006-01-22

"His narrative is compelling and convincing. This important book reveals the extent of cultural warfare, exposes its nature and, by helping us to understand some of the most terrible tragedies of recent times, gives us the means and resolve to fight this evil. All who care must read this book and learn its lessons."

-- Dan Cruickshank, The Independent Published On: 2006-02-10

"The message of Robert Bevan’s devastating book is that war is about killing cultures, identities and memories as much as it is about killing people and occupying territory. War is not just licensed murder but licensed vandalism. Since people are replaceable but buildings and cultures not, the destruction of buildings is often the more ferocious."

-- Simon Jenkins, The Sunday Times (UK) Published On: 2005-02-26

The Destruction of Memory presents a dark account of how that devastation is brought about, along with a cogent argument for why it deserves recognition as an atrocity separate from the human carnage it so often accompanies. . . . Bevan's grim statistics force readers to confront yet another dimension of the savagery of our age."

-- Tom Lewis, Wilson Quarterly Published On: 2006-04-01

"Bevan wisely doesn't push his case to the point of strict consistence; his weighting of the role of architecture in war is not absolutely uniform from case to case, nor does it need to be. . . . It is sobering to have so many apparent facts and figures in one book. . . . Where power belongs to the aggressor, the destruction of one family's home might be taken as the first embodiment of a genocide. In reminding us of this Bevan has performed a valuable service, no matter what we may think about a rebuilt Warsaw or a cherished ruin. . . . If we accept that there is no architecturally embodied identity of a nation or people, that our current historical existence is not vitally wrapped up in relics of an imagined past except as nostalgia, then we are unlikely to worry about the occasionally destruction of buildings. Bevan's book makes clear that such insouciance (and nostalgia) is the privilege of the secure and well-defended nation-states where the continuity of home and shelter is assumed."

-- David Simpson, London Review of Books Published On: 2006-05-25

"Thoughtful and provocative. . . .Yet from the Nazi looting of synagogues to the Taliban's demolition of the Bamiyan Buddhas, deliberate destruction of the physical environment has often presaged devastating conflicts. Bevan's timely book urges us to remain attentive to such early warning signs."

-- Joshua Arthur, In These Times Published On: 2006-07-07

"This absorbing study attempts to tease out meaning from these various vandalisms."

, The Scotsman

About the Author

Robert Bevan is the architecture critic for the London Evening Standard and writes regularly on architectural, design, and housing issues. He lives in London.

Product details

Publisher : Reaktion Books; Illustrated edition (April 20, 2007)
Language : English
Paperback : 240 pages
ISBN-10 : 1861893191
ISBN-13 : 978-1861893192
Item Weight : 1.1 pounds
Dimensions : 6 x 0.7 x 9 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,312,539 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #832 in War & Peace (Books)
- #2,108 in Architecture (Books)
- #2,140 in Architecture Reference (Books)

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Katherine

A Truly Excellent Book

Reviewed in the United States on August 4, 2015

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An exceptional book that clearly and luminously explains why it is that we feel for the war torn landscape. Buildings stand as far more than just shelter; rather, they are they backdrop for our stories of love, life, and loss. When they are destroyed, they take enormous parts of our history (personal and otherwise) with them. I would *highly* recommend this book - specifically to those interested in finding/understanding meaning in the built environment, but also to anyone interested in being intellectually engaged in the world we live in. We are globally united in built form - perhaps a more sensitive understanding of the world through this specific lens might help us to better understand eachother.

One person found this helpful

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patrick

a good book.

Reviewed in the United States on August 14, 2014

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A good book. Bit dry. Loads of information and just what I expected

2 people found this helpful

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Maria Hogan

Very interesting and very easy read. I didn't put it down

Reviewed in the United States on March 22, 2015

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As an architect this book has answered many questions for me. Very interesting and very easy read. I didn't put it down.

One person found this helpful

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Joseph S. Cavalieri

excellent

Reviewed in the United States on June 5, 2010

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This book helps understand the reasoning behind some of the worst cultural tragedies, how war has changed over the decades, and the control of memories. I can see this book used for reference in college studies. It clearly documents destruction and ends with a passionate plea.

5 people found this helpful

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Buildings Are Killed In Wars, Too

Reviewed in the United States on April 11, 2006

In 1993, the lovely 16th century Ottoman Stari Most Bridge in Mostar was shelled and broken by Croat gunners. It had been a landmark and a beloved Bosnian cultural totem. "Mostar" means "bridge-keeper", and the bridge had connected two sides of the most cosmopolitan city in Bosnia, one Ottoman old side and one heterodox new side. The city took pride that it had the highest rate of mixed Croat-Serb-Muslim marriages. The bridge was a symbol, and its destruction was a symbol, and is the abiding image of the Croatian war. In _The Destruction of Memory: Architecture at War_ (Reaktion Books), Robert Bevan quotes Croatian writer Slavenka Drakulic, who wonders, "Why do we feel more pain looking at the image of the destroyed bridge than the image of massacred people?" The answer Drakulic comes up with is that we feel our own mortality, and we expect our lives to end, but everyone expected the bridge to outlive the humans who loved it. "A dead woman is one of us," Drakulic writes, "but the bridge is all of us forever." The bridge is but one of the stories in this sad and fascinating book. Bevan, who has edited _Building Design_ and written about architecture in various forums, has drawn on many examples to demonstrate that while attention must obviously be paid first to human casualties of war, the destruction of buildings and monuments is also a major crime. Because of the permanence we attribute to buildings, they foster "the creation of social identity located in time and place". Their destruction has effects on future communities and communal memory. The destruction is also evidence of crimes against humanity, including genocide.

It is true that such destruction has always gone on in human conflict, but Bevan makes the case that it was in the past century that war on architecture, "the destruction of the cultural artefacts of an enemy people or nation as a means of dominating, terrorising, dividing or eradicating it altogether", has become monstrously pursued. Bevan is not writing about collateral damage which happens in any war, but has one example after another, like the Mostar bridge, to show how deliberate is the destruction of buildings and monuments by combatants on the offensive, and how devastating the results might be. Religious buildings still seem to be particular targets (with libraries and museums also selected for particular destruction). In the wars in the former Yugoslavia, Catholic Croat and Serbian Orthodox structures did not escape targeting, but the Bosnian Muslims had the most severe losses. Here are before and after photographs showing mosques and then the ruins or car parks that has become of them. This is not mere aggression. In the town of Zvornik, once 60% Muslim with a dozen mosques, the mayor declared, "There never were any mosques in Zvornik." Destroying such pesky reminders is a way of controlling the present by controlling history (and it is no surprise that George Orwell is frequently cited here).

The examples are from all over. Israelis and Palestinians, of course, use history and archeology to promote politics, and are literally undermining each other's buildings by tunneling beneath them. "Bomber" Harris meditated on the destruction of the medieval city L?beck, saying it was "more like a firelighter than a human habitation." The communists destroyed churches in Russia, and China continues to obliterate the buildings connected to Tibetan worship and culture. The Taliban destroyed the colossal 1,500-year-old Buddhas in 2001, after having forced local people to plant the explosives. Of course the destroyed World Trade Center is here. Not everything in Bevan's book is about destruction; he also examines the construction of walls, in Berlin, of course, but also in Belfast and Israel. There is also reconstruction, which presents further historical and cultural problems. Some bombed out cities in Europe have taken a "Disneyfication" approach, trying to fashion city centers into the way they looked hundreds of years ago. The military could rapidly make repairs to the Pentagon, but the repairs to the World Trade Center site remain controversial as rebuilders and memorializers battle over the appropriate use of a very valuable piece of real estate. Bevan has not just accumulated examples of politically-motivated obliteration of buildings, but calls for a change; we cannot forget human lives lost, but we need, he concludes, a separate crime of "cultural genocide." His quietly angry book will convince any reader that warring against architecture makes losers of us all.

21 people found this helpful

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Pierre Gauthier

Tragically Fascinating!

Reviewed in the United States on February 10, 2010

This poignant work deals with the destruction of architecture as an instrument of warfare and conquest. In a single book, the author brings together a broad range of information with which most are familiar only in distinct bits: systematic Nazi destruction of Jewish and Polish monuments and buildings, organized demolition of Muslim constructions in Bosnia by Serbs and Croats, methodical attacks on Tibetan built presence by Chinese Communists, etc. The author courageously evokes not only the actions of totalitarian regimes but also deliberate Allied bombings of the historic heart of German cities during World War II and current operations by the democratically elected governments of Israel or India. This tragic synthesis reveals essential truths about human nature and, perversely, confirms the importance of architecture in cultures and societies.

The destruction discussed is not only that of first half of the 1900's but also of current times up to and including the 21st century, demonstrating that barbarity is sadly not a thing of the past.

This landmark book, well-written and effectively illustrated with black and white photographs, deserves wide recognition. It is very strongly recommended to anyone interested in architecture, city planning or contemporary history.

6 people found this helpful

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Gordon Guano

No farting half-orcs, but still pretty good, I guess.

Reviewed in the United States on September 19, 2014

I was hoping to escape into a new Caverns and Creatures book, but instead this is a book about how grim and sad real life is. Although it could have been spiced up with abuse of a Mount spell, it's still a solid read.

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Top reviews from other countries

Mr. G. Horsewood

When you destroy heritage, you destroy the people - war's 21st century mantra

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 29, 2020

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A brilliant summation of how nations are destroyed methodically by destroying their culture and re-inventing history; even truer now than during the destruction wrought in WWII, and a sad indictment of our so-called 'civilise' world.
An excellent book - essential for anyone with a political and social conscience.

Virginia Bird

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 6, 2017

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Apurva

Very unique.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 1, 2016

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Enlightening and very intense. Provided lots of input for my dissertation research. Will definitely recommend for History and war fanatics.

2 people found this helpful

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