Bookshelf

Kirk Savage Honored for His Book on National Mall and Transformation of Memorial Spaces

The Smithsonian American Art Museum has awarded the 2010 Charles C. Eldredge Prize to Kirk Savage, a professor and chair in the Department of the History of Art and Architecture at the University of Pittsburgh, for his book Monument Wars: Washington D.C., the National Mall, and the Transformation of the Memorial Landscape (University of California Press, 2009).

The $3,000 annual prize, given in honor of a former director of the museum, recognizes original and comprehensive research and excellence in writing in the field of American art history.

In Monument Wars, the jurors said, Savage recounts the creation and recreation of the memorial landscape of Washington, D.C., “where generations of designers, engineers, and artists have given concrete form to the imagined community of the nation.”

Elizabeth Broun, the Margaret and Terry Stent Director of the art museum, calls Savage’s book “compelling” and says it contributes an important perspective to the ongoing discussion of the role of the National Mall.

“Anchored by accounts of the creation, reception, and subsequent history of three very different monuments—the assertive Washington monument, the classicizing Lincoln Memorial, and the minimalist Vietnam Veterans memorial, as well as the abstract greensward they punctuate and define, Savage’s discussion is wide ranging and deeply nuanced,” the jurors wrote. More information on the book can be found at www.monumentwars.com.

Savage began writing about public monuments and public space as a freelancer in the 1980s. He went on to earn master’s and PhD degrees in art history at the University of California, Berkeley. His book Standing Soldiers, Kneeling Slaves: Race, War, and Monument in Nineteenth-Century America (Princeton University Press, 1997) won the John Hope Franklin Prize for best book published in American studies in 1998.

—Sharon S. Blake

Katz Professor Calian Writes Book on Leadership

Carnegie Samuel Calian, visiting professor in Pitt’s Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business and former president of and professor in the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, is the author of the new book The Spirit-Driven Leader: Seven Keys to Succeeding Under Pressure (Westminster John Knox Press), to be published this month.

In his book, Calian outlines elements he feels are critical to effective leadership under pressure: creativity, competence, commitment, character, collegiality, compassion, and courage. Filled with telling anecdotes, Calian’s book asks readers to look not only within themselves but to reach out to others to inspire hope and build stronger communities in trying times.

Calian is also the author of The Ideal Seminary: Pursuing Excellence in Theological Education (Westminster John Knox Press, 2002) and Survival or Revival: Ten Keys to Church Vitality (Westminster John Knox Press, 1999).

—Amanda Leff Ritchie