When television viewers see James Muñoz on the air, they see a man who has achieved his lifelong dream. They don't see the lonely, sexually abused child with a father-sized hole in his heart. James grew up missing the father he never knew and spent much of his early adulthood searching for his paternal family. Today he uses the name Muñoz (his mother's maiden name) on the air to honor his maternal family and Hispanic heritage and the name Doughty (his surname) in private life to honor his father and his paternal family's legacy. He shares his story to inspire and encourage others to achieve their dreams regardless of the challenges they face. His grandmother's poems and his father's letters that helped fill that empty place in his heart will touch the hearts of readers, and his advice to young people will motivate them to build their own monuments to last.

How today’s questions surrounding monuments and the ways we commemorate our past first arose in Rembrandt’s time Monuments occupy a controversial place in nations founded on principles of freedom and self-governance. It is no accident that when we think of monuments, we think of statues modeled on legacies of conquest, domination, and violence. The Monument’s End reveals how the artists, architects, poets, and scholars of the early modern Netherlands contended with the profound disconnect between the public monument and the ideals of republican government. Their experiences offer vital lessons about the making, reception, and destruction of monuments in the present. In the seventeenth century, the newly formed Dutch Republic dominated world trade and colonized vast overseas territories even as it sought to shed the trappings of its imperial past. Marisa Anne Bass describes the frustrated attempts by figures such as Rembrandt van Rijn and playwright and poet Joost van den Vondel to reimagine public memory for their emergent nation. She shows how the most celebrated age of Dutch art was more an age of bronze than of gold, one in which the pursuit of freedom from domination was constantly challenged by the commercial ambitions of empire. Exploring how the artists and intellectuals of this vibrant century asked questions that still resonate today, this beautifully illustrated book discusses works by contemporary artists such as Spencer Finch and Thomas Hirschhorn and offers new perspectives on monuments like the 9/11 Memorial and Museum and events such as the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1883.