From Queen Boudicca's fight against the Romans to Nelson Mandela's struggle against apartheid, readers can walk among the statuary of the capital and bring history to life London has more than 300 monuments which are easily unnoticed but have fascinating tales to tell, and with detailed maps and stunning photos, this handbook is a great way to uncover the many tales surrounding them. Where else can visitors find a monument to an emasculated lion made from a mysterious ceramic or the figure of an 18th-century radical thinker who was hounded from his home by an angry mob? The monument to Quintin Hogg commemorates one of the country's great philanthropists who dedicated much of his life to teaching street children and was nearly murdered several times for his efforts. The less worthy figure of George IV has a much grander monument--which is not surprising as he paid for the monument himself using public funds. The good, the bad, the courageous, and the cowardly all have a permanent place on the streets of London.

Today the 80-mile-long Moscow Canal is a source of leisure for Muscovites, a conduit for tourists and provides the city with more than 60% of its potable water. Yet the past looms heavy over these quotidian activities: the canal was built by Gulag inmates at the height of Stalinism and thousands died in the process. In this wide-ranging book, Cynthia Ruder argues that the construction of the canal physically manifests Stalinist ideology and that the vertical, horizontal, underwater, ideological, artistic and metaphorical spaces created by it resonate with the desire of the state to dominate all space within and outside the Soviet Union. Ruder draws on theoretical constructs from cultural geography and spatial studies to interpret and contextualise a variety of structural and cultural products dedicated to, and in praise of, this signature Stalinist construction project. Approached through an extensive range of archival sources, personal interviews and contemporary documentary materials these include a diverse body of artefacts - from waterways, structures, paintings, sculptures, literary and documentary works, and the Gulag itself. Building Stalinism concludes by analysing current efforts to reclaim the legacy of the canal as a memorial space that ensures that those who suffered and died building it are remembered. This is essential reading for all scholars working on the all-pervasive nature of Stalinism and its complex afterlife in Russia today.