Blunt Instruments, Kristin Ann Hass
Blunt Instruments, Kristin Ann Hass
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Blunt Instruments
Recognizing Racist Cultural Infrastructure in Memorials, Museums, and Patriotic Practices

Author: Kristin Ann Hass

Narrator: Nadia Marshall

Unabridged: 8 hr 36 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 01/24/2023

Synopsis

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.

About The Author

Kristin Ann Hass is a professor in the Department of American Culture and director of the Humanities Collaboratory at the University of Michigan. Her previous books include Sacrificing Soldiers on the National Mall and Carried to the Wall: American Memory and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. She was also the cofounder and associate director of Imagining America: Artists and Scholars in Public Life.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Sarah

This is an interesting topic, but the style is kind of weird. It reads like a college paper where the author is repetitively tying everything back to the thesis. Anyway... I picked this up because of the removal of the Philip Schuyler statue in Albany, NY. I didn't feel too informed about the issue.......more

Goodreads review by Denise

Idk if this is an overstatement, but ALL AMERICANS SHOULD READ THIS.......more

Goodreads review by Scott

(Audiobook) (3.5 stars)History can be in the eyes of the beholder. One persons monument is another person's symbol of oppression. Given recent events in America and the emphasis on the motives, reasons and impacts of memorials and other ways to remember the past, there is increased literature about......more

Goodreads review by Jim

I feel fortunate in winning a free copy of this book. (I should add I only sign up for books I think I actually want to read). I found this fascinating and, I have to say, disturbing reading. Hass lays out a detailed case that all three of these pieces of cultural infrastructure have been used throu......more

Quotes

“With this much-needed book, even readers already engaging in more holistic history-telling will find meaningful ways to level up their critical thinking.”
—Booklist, Starred Review

“Hass offers a powerful exposé of the persistence of race in the ongoing public dialogue about citizenship and belonging.”
—Library Journal

“[An] ultra-compelling book . . . With this much-needed book, even readers already engaging in more holistic history-telling will find meaningful ways to level up their critical thinking.”
—Publishers Weekly

“If you have ever wanted to understand how and why monuments work, this stunning book is your decoder ring. . . . A sharp tool for interpreting the racial implications of America’s cultural and physical landscape.”
—Tiya Miles, author of All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley’s Sack, a Black Family Keepsake

“In Blunt Instruments, Kristin Hass deftly interrogates the hidden messages—those clearly understood but rarely spoken aloud—that shape what it means to be American today. It is a fascinating, urgent, eye-opening, and necessary read, offering a vision for a nation where all can thrive.”
—Mark Clague, author of O Say Can You Hear? A Cultural Biography of “The Star-Spangled Banner”

“For anyone and everyone interested in creating a more socially just world, this is essential reading! Blunt Instruments is an indispensable field guide that helps us all to understand and navigate debates surrounding memorials and monuments, museums, and everyday patriotic practices that have rocked our nation. Kristin Hass provides concise historical context, new language, and a powerful analysis that makes it impossible to see or unsee the world around us in the same way ever again. The lesson of this book is clear: cultural infrastructure plays a huge role in maintaining crushing inequities. Once we understand this, we can and must contribute to challenging and changing it.”
—Dr. Lisa Yun Lee, executive director, National Public Housing Museum, and Associate Professor of Public Practice and Museum Studies, University of Illinois at Chicago

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