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Art, Memory, and the Fight for a Vietnam War Memorial
by James Reston Jr.
A distinguished and bestselling historian and Vietnam vet revisits the culture war that raged around the selection of Maya Lin's design for the Vietnam Memoria.
A Rift in the Earth tells the remarkable story of the ferocious "art war" that raged between 1979 and 1984 over what kind of memorial should be built to honor the men and women who died in the Vietnam War. The story intertwines art, politics, historical memory, patriotism, racism, and a fascinating set of characters, from those who fought in the conflict and those who resisted it to politicians at the highest level. At its center are two enduring figures: Maya Lin, a young, Asian-American architecture student at Yale whose abstract design won the international competition but triggered a fierce backlash among powerful figures; and Frederick Hart, an innovative sculptor of humble origins on the cusp of stardom.
James Reston, Jr., a veteran who lost a close friend in the war and has written incisively about the conflict's bitter aftermath, explores how the debate reignited passions around Vietnam long after the war's end and raised questions about how best to honor those who fought and sacrificed in an ill-advised war. Richly illustrated with photographs from the era and design entries from the memorial competition, A Rift in the Earth is timed to appear alongside Ken Burns's eagerly anticipated PBS documentary, The Vietnam War.
"Starred Review. As this relatively brief but powerful book shows, this outcome was far from a foregone conclusion." - Kirkus
"This moving historical snapshot casts a wide net of interest and will appeal to Vietnam-era scholars, art historians, and general readers." - Library Journal
"Historian and Vietnam veteran Reston (Luther's Fortress) shares the rocky, controversy-filled story behind the Vietnam Veterans Memorial (popularly known as the Wall) in this well-written examination of how the memorial was conceived and built." - Publishers Weekly
"A Rift in the Earth is an absolutely fascinating account of the artistic, political, personal, and cultural tensions that arose from America's most divisive war, and that led to one the country's greatest works of public art. I followed the controversy over the Vietnam Veterans memorial when it was underway, but I learned from almost every page of this book. This is a great narrative and reportorial success." - The Atlantic
"The memorial appears as a rift in the earth, a long polished black stone wall, emerging from and receding into the earth." - Maya Lin
"I see the wall as a kind of ocean, a sea of sacrifice. ... I place these figures upon the shore of that sea." - Frederick Hart
"Searing and sweeping, Reston's narrative captures the political, cultural, and social ferment of those heady days of Vietnam and its aftermath with great skill and erudition." - John F. Kerry, 68th US Secretary of State
"Told from a deeply affecting personal perspective, this is an important story about the significance of art to the nation." - Bobbie Ann Mason, author of In Country and The Girl in the Blue Beret
"Reston's riveting history of the battle for Maya Lin's unconventional and moving monument brings to life the personalities on both sides as well as the emotions that galvanized such intense disagreement and mirrored the deep rift of the war itself." - Myra MacPherson, author of the bestselling Long Time Passing: Vietnam and the Haunted Generation and the award-winning All Governments Lie: The Life and Times of Rebel Journalist I. F. Stone
"This is a story that needs to be told, and James Reston, Jr., tells it very well ... For me, the Wall and the entranceway that resulted from the Art War controversy provide a place to find closure for those who fought the war, those whose loved ones did not return, and even those who violently opposed it." - Lieutenant General Ron Christmas, USMC (Retired), Former President & CEO, Marine Corps Heritage Foundation
This information about A Rift in the Earth was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
James Reston, Jr. was an assistant to Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall before serving in the US Army from 1965 to 1968. He is the bestselling author of seventeen books - including The Conviction of Richard Nixon: The Untold Story of the Frost/Nixon Interviews, which helped inspire the film Frost/Nixon (2008) - three plays, and numerous articles in The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, and the New York Times Magazine. He won the Prix Italia and Dupont-Columbus Award for his NPR radio documentary, Father Cares: The Last of Jonestown. He lives with his wife in Chevy Chase, Maryland.
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