Monument Wars: Washington, D.C., the National Mall, and the Transformation of the Memorial Landscape Book

"Monument Wars" tells the story of the National Mall in Washington DC, from the original plan by Pierre L'Enfant to the establishment of such monuments as those for the Vietnam Veterans and Franklin Roosevelt (but it was published before the Martin Luther King Memorial was developed). The Mall has undergone many changes since the original plan. As recently as the late 1800s, it had more of the look of a wild forest than the manicured space surrounded by stately museums that we see today. As those changes took place, monuments and memorials were planned from the west side of the Capitol all the way to the Lincoln Memorial - and almost every one of them had detractors who fought for changes, sometimes successfully and sometimes not. It is a great story!