The sculptor perfected his concepts by working for white supremacists in the Lost Cause monument movement
You can add Mount Rushmore to the list of memorials that wouldn’t exist if it hadn’t been for the relentless United Daughters of the Confederacy — the group that spearheaded the erection of thousands of Confederate monuments.
Before Gutzon Borglum, the visionary sculptor of Mount Rushmore, began work on the four presidents in South Dakota, he found his passion for gargantuan mountain carvings in Georgia. Even in 1915, Stone Mountain, a rock dome that pokes a half-kilometer into the sky east of Atlanta, had…
History, it’s said, is written by the winners. In America, that isn’t true.
Here, history is written by the people most determined to write it.
We’re also told than men control the narrative. But in America, women have done more — far, far more — to shape popular historical memory in the public square than any other group. Put simply, the women of the South — allegedly on the losing side, allegedly powerless — directed the most powerful public relations movement in historical circles.
For my book, Here Lies America, I traveled to town squares, historic sites, and public parks…
Jason Cochran
Author of “Here Lies America,” Editor-in-Chief of Frommers.com, WABC co-host, two-time Lowell Thomas Award winner for Guide Book of the Year.
