"Through a series of short essays, illustrated by 140 photographs, this book examines how America evolved its sculptural and memorial traditions, and how they were adapted to the purposes of war remembrance. Each of the great memorial epochs is covered: The American Revolution and Civil War, the Spanish-American War and First World War, and then World War Two and the post-war decades. This story - of the arts of memory - is set upon the stage of the city's own growth, its seeking for identity, and the role of the elites and the immigrants who formed its soul and sent their sons to war for an adopted homeland.

Their tributes remind us that our memorial landscape is more than a record of art and cultural history; it is foremost a legacy of sacrifice raised up for the city's sons and daughters by those who gave and remembered them. The book's second part is a descriptive catalog of 159 memorials, including three maps that provide convenient walking tours in Manhattan and Brooklyn."--Jacket.