Their last battle
Subtitle: the fight for the national World War II memorial
By: Nicolaus Mills.
Edition: 1st ed.
Publisher: Basic Books
Published: 2004
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 268
Subjects: World War II Memorial (Washington, D.C.); Mall, The (Washington, D.C.); Memorials -- Washington (D.C.)
Description: "In 1987, Roger Durbin, a retired mail carrier and World War II veteran, asked his congresswoman a pointed question: "How come there's no memorial to World War II in Washington?" From that simple question sprang the long quest to create the National World War II Memorial on the Mall in Washington. The struggle grew into a seventeen-year odyssey, beginning with a seemingly uncontroversial Congressional bill and culminating in the official opening on Memorial Day weekend in 2004." "In Their Last Battle, Nicolaus Mills tells the definitive story of the monumental fight to make the memorial a reality. From arguments over its location to political stonewalling and criticism of its design, the memorial became a lightning rod for politicians, critics, veterans' groups, and others who lined up either for or against it, even as the number of surviving World War II veterans dwindled with each year of delay. The memorial's rocky progress to completion is a compelling story of Washington politics, but ultimately it reveals what public monuments can tell us about America and the values it honors."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.