Download A Rift in the Earth: Art, Memory, and the Fight for a Vietnam War Memorial AudioBook Free
A Distinguished and Bestselling Historian and Vietnam Veterinary Revisits the Culture War that Raged around selecting Maya Lin's Design for the Vietnam Memorial A Rift in the Earth instructs the remarkable storyline of the ferocious "fine art warfare" that raged between 1979 and 1984 over the type of memorial should be built to honor the men and women who died in the Vietnam War. The story intertwines fine art, politics, historical ram, patriotism, racism, and a fascinating set of people, from those who fought in the conflict and the ones who resisted it to politicians at the highest level. At its centre are two enduring statistics: Maya Lin, a young, Asian-American architecture learner at Yale whose abstract design received the international competition but triggered a fierce backlash among powerful statistics; and Frederick Hart, an innovative sculptor of humble roots on the cusp of stardom. Adam Reston, Jr., a veteran who lost a close friend in the warfare and has written incisively about the conflict's bitter aftermath, explores the way the issue reignited passions around Vietnam long after the war's end and increased questions about how precisely better to honor those who fought and sacrificed within an ill-advised warfare. "The memorial looks as a rift in the planet earth, a long polished black stone wall structure, rising from and receding in to the earth." - Maya Lin "I start to see the wall as a kind of ocean, a sea of sacrifice.... I place these statistics upon the shore of this sea." - Frederick Hart
